


The Tale of Time

by ivoragon



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale, Original Work, Shugo Chara!, Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga)
Genre: (I think?), But it actually gets better later on!, Drama, Fighting, Gen, Magic, Mostly original with OC origins taken from existing series, OC-centric, Original setting, Questionable writing, Training, has some crack moments
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-16 01:35:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 29,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29074170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivoragon/pseuds/ivoragon
Summary: A story featuring three girls, one magical world, and countless moments that will make the reader have to pause and question what they just read.Or: my friends and I dug up averyold story we wrote in middle school. Might as well unleash this creation upon the wonderful ranks of the literary internet. What's the worst that can happen?
Relationships: Original Female Character(s) & Original Female Character(s), Original Female Character(s) & Original Male Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Many, many summers ago, my four friends and I, at the ripe age of 12, decided to write a story. And not unexpectedly, this story ended up containing many elements you'd expect from something written by a bunch of 12-year-olds: a nonsensical plot, a 3-way anime universe crossover, self-insert (lowkey mary sue) OCs, very questionable writing, and... _much more. Too much more._
> 
> Now, after having it sit in my files for over six years, I've decided to abuse the fact that AO3 allows for the posting of fandom-inspired original pieces to share this. If you're here somehow, I hope that maybe you'll be able to find some sort of entertainment from this in the same way that I did when I wrote this, and in the same strange but nostalgic way that I still do when I revisit it.
> 
> With all that said, if you're still here, I hope you enjoy this culmination of weird middle school imagination—in all its original, unadulterated, amateurish glory. Remember, you have been warned :)

_~SERAPHINA’S STORY~_

“Sera!” Rikka exclaimed so suddenly that I almost dropped my watering can.

"It's Seraphina," I muttered. “And what’s wrong?”

"X-Eggs. They're back to their old tricks! W-What do we do? Yaya... and the others... they're not here! I can't do this!" wailed Rikka.

“No, Rikka, we have to get rid of the X-Eggs," I said. "If we leave them alone, it’ll cause more trouble!" After I character transformed with Karin, I grabbed Rikka's hand and pulled her along with me.

"O-Okay!" said Rikka uncertainly. "We can do this!" A tiny rustle from the trees came from behind me.

"Show yourself!" I cried as I spun around.

"Failure... FAILURE!" shrieked the X-Eggs.

"It's fine!" I yelled. "Just try again! It's not the end of the world! You guys are probably only like, six years old! You still have a lot of time to try again!" I sighed. "X-Eggs overreact way too much..."

The X-Eggs shook and whimpered.

"Artist Expedition!" I yelled as I flung my sketchbook into the air. It flew open and shot out sparkles that scattered everywhere. The X-Eggs began shaking as it tried to escape the glittering prison.

"No! No! NO!" screeched the eggs as they broke free from the magical cage.

"Doodle Dragon!" I flung out my sketchbook and an enormous dragon burst out of it. It roared, heaving his giant red wings before rising to the sky, glaring at the X-Eggs.

The X-Eggs whimpered and trembled. "Rainbow Revolution!" A rainbow flame burst out of my dragon and caught the X-Eggs. "Rikka, now!" I signalled, and Rikka cleansed the X-Eggs with the Humpty Lock.

The newly replenished Heart's Eggs floated away in a glittery cloud. Rikka ran over and hugged me.

"Yay! Thank you Seraphina! I couldn't have done it without you!"

I smiled.

Suddenly, Rikka gasped. "AMU!" squealed Rikka. She ran up and hugged the unnaturally pink haired girl.

"Hi Rikka. I was watching you, and you did amazing." Amu turned to me. “Oh, and you too, Seraphina. I know you’re not a part of the Guardians, but you’re still doing a good job helping Rikka.”

“Thanks,” I said. “She’s just too unconfident...”

Amu smiled. “I don't want to be rude, but I have something really important to tell you..."

  
  


_~CALYPSO’S STORY~_

Carefully, I slipped on the Amusphere. _Time to log onto Alfheim Online..._

The field I found myself in was quiet. 

_Too_ quiet... 

_STOMP._

_STOMP._

_RUSTLE._

I turned around just in time to see a humongous beast lunging towards me. My instincts kicked in as I dodged its first attempt to decapitate me. I ran into the woods to catch my breath. The monster was heaving and roaring as it began to charge towards me. I swiftly whipped out my Divine Longsword and cleanly sliced the beast into two. 

Blood shot out from all angles and splattered my crisp white overcoat. Not caring about the blood, I slung my silver and blue sword back into its sheath. I brushed the hair out of face and tightened my ponytail. 

“Wow. I spent all that effort killing it just to get these stupid gloves,” I muttered, picking up the monster drop and flying in the direction of the village.

Suddenly, a snarling monster leaped down at me from the trees. Eagerly, I whipped out my sword. With a swift motion, I stabbed my sword into the monster’s chest, causing it to roar in anger and lash its tail in frustration. 

“This one looks stronger,” I said to myself with a smirk. 

The monster lunged at me. I quickly leaped above it, nearly getting my wings torn by the beast’s ferocious claws. With a strong jab, I thrust my sword into the monstrous flesh of my opponent. I sped down its body, creating an enormous tear in its flesh. The monster cried in agony and collapsed, but not before it could strike me with its powerful tail.

My abdomen throbbed in pain. _Dang it, its tail was poisonous!_ I floated down, grasping my aching side. My health was slowly lowering as I made my way towards the nearest village. I could feel the poison working its way through my body. 

“Are you Calypso?” asked a voice from behind me. I turned around to find myself facing the legendary Kirito. 

"K-Kirito...? W-What are you doing here?" Awe struck me as I just froze on the spot, unsure of what to do.

"I have been sent to find you."

"Yeah, but who sent you? Why do you need me?" I demanded, my grip relaxing on the handle.

"This is no time for questions. Come with me," replied the famed hero, handing me a poison antidote.

  
  


_~JUNIPER’S STORY~_

I reached into my quiver for another arrow as many snake-like demons charged at me. Without wasting a second, I shot an arrow at the horde of demons, purifying and killing them all in one shot. 

But it was useless. Dozens of more demons were approaching every second. 

“Damn it,” I muttered. “Naraku’s demonic aura is making all the demons rampage.” Screeches and snarls erupted as they leaped at me. I quickly pulled out my arrows and killed the demons one by one. 

_ROAR_! An ear-splitting roar filled the air, making all the other demons flee into the dark, night sky. 

_BOOM!_ Loud footsteps echoed through the forest causing trees to splinter and fall over to reveal a giant two headed demon. Flame rose from its nostrils and its sharp claws glistened with blood. A pairs of glowing red eyes glared at me. I backed up a few steps. I gasped, sensing the presence of a sacred jewel shard in one of the heads. 

“I have to retrieve it,” I said as I reached to get another arrow, before sending my arrow flying straight to the head with the shard. The arrow hit the shard, causing the demon to roar in pain. 

Blood dripped from the wound as the demon tumbled backwards. The sacred jewel shard fell out, landing on the bloodstained grass. 

But the demon wasn’t stopped without the shard. It stampeded towards me, roaring in fury. 

But then, suddenly, the demon shrieked. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a dog-eared half demon in a red robe slashing at the demon with his claws. 

“Inuyasha?” I shouted as I recognized the face, but he ignored me as he continued clashing with the demon.

The demon snarled and lashed at Inuyasha with its claws, stabbing the half demon straight through his stomach. Blood gushed out, but he only seemed more annoyed. 

“Stupid demon,” he growled, slashing at the demon again. This time, he decapitated both heads. The demon’s dead body crashed to the ground. 

Inuyasha faced me after collecting the jewel shard. 

“That was my shard...” I muttered with a slight roll of my eyes. “And besides, what are you doing here? Where’s Kagome?”

“I’ve been sent by someone to get you. Come with me,” he said gruffly. 

“Why?” I asked. “Who were you sent by?” 

“Stop babbling these stupid questions, shut up, and come!” Inuyasha growled. 

I slowly and unsurely nodded. _Maybe I can get that jewel shard from him on the way._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Originally written:_ ** _July 2014._
> 
> So, uh, I was not lying when I mentioned _"self-insert (mary sue-y) OCs"_ HAHAHA Like, each of the characters introduced here legitimately corresponded with me and two of my friends who were part of this. (As for my other two friends... you'll probably see.) But I swear that we manage to tone down the self-insert-mary-sue-ness later on! Probably! Hopefully.
> 
> Also, first-person perspective but with literally three different characters all in the exact same chapter—what better way to make a first impression than that, am I right?


	2. In The Hall Of The Enchantress

“Where are you taking me? Where am I?” Seraphina cried, her voice muffled by a potato sack on her head.

“Let go of me!” screamed Juniper. 

“This is so boring. How long have we been walking?” complained Calypso, trying to shake off her sack.

“Wait, who’s here?! DID YOU KIDNAP OTHER PEOPLE?” yelled Seraphina.

“YES!” Juniper replied. “And they put a BURLAP SACK on my HEAD!”

“Can you guys QUIET DOWN?!” yelled Calypso. “I still have my longsword with me! And if you don’t SHUT UP, then I WILL slice you into two!”

“Who are you guys?” asked Seraphina.

“I’m Juniper!” replied Juniper. “And who’s the longsword person?”

“I’m not sure if I should tell you...” muttered Calypso. “And what did I say about shutting up?”

“Yeah, yeah, you have a sword,” Juniper said, rolling her eyes, even though no one could see. “So what? I have sacred arrows. And a bow.”

“And I have a magical fire breathing dragon! So don’t threaten me!” exclaimed Seraphina. “Wait! You guys, we’ve stopped!”

Suddenly, the potato sacks were pulled off of the three confused hostages. 

The girls gasped, finding themselves facing an enormous mansion with a lush lawn separating the girls and the mansion. There was a path that cut through the lawn. On one side of the lawn, there was a field of flowers with a fountain in the middle, and on the other was a small copse of trees. The mansion seemed to be in the middle of a deep forest, and various animal noises sounded from around the girls.

“Whoa,” breathed the three girls in unison. 

“Where are we? This place is SO not the place for a grinning insane kidnapper clown with bloody knives and dead bodies piled everywhere behind him. Okay, I guess this forest is, but the mansion looks too pretty for a kidnapper to live in!” said Seraphina.

“Is _that_ how you imagined the kidnapper?” Calypso smirked.

“What do we do now?” Seraphina asked.

“Well, enter!” said Amu with a smile, encouraging the three girls to enter with a gesture of her hand.

Seraphina, Calypso and Juniper carefully inched towards the mansion, still in awe of the size.

“What are you afraid of?” asked Kirito. “Go!” He opened the grand doors of the mansion.

A bit afraid, Seraphina dawdled towards the open doors. Juniper and Calypso also slowly approached the doors, but not much faster than Seraphina.

“HURRY UP!” Inuyasha hollered from behind them.

Juniper, ignoring him, stepped into the building, followed by Calypso.

“Holy embryo...” whispered Seraphina as the room became flooded with light, illuminating the enormous room and elaborate furniture. 

The grand room was filled with shimmering crystal and sparkling mahogany, but all the furniture was pushed to the sides of the room. There was nothing in the centre of the room but a single table surrounded by a few chairs, with a mysterious cloaked person and a light gray cat sitting at the head of the table.

“What are you waiting for?” came an agitated yet oddly feminine voice. “I’m not going to wait all day!” The figure lifted off their dark hood, revealing a young girl, with dark glasses and a steely gaze. 

“Are you the one behind all this?” Calypso asked.

“Behind what?” smirked the girl, mischievously. “ _What’s wrong?_ ”

“You’re the one who kidnapped us! Why would you do this?” cried Seraphina.

“Why all the questions? Isn’t it rude to talk without formally introducing ourselves?” said the girl, with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

“FINE,” answered Juniper. “I’m Juniper, and these are Seraphina and...”

“And?”

“FINE, IF I _HAVE TO TELL,_ ” muttered Calypso. “Calypso...”

“ _Lovely to meet you,_ ” said the girl, causing the others to roll their eyes. “I’m Chamomile—but don’t call me that.”

“Wait—your name is Chamomile?” interrupted Seraphina. “But that’s such a sweet and innocent name! And you’re—”

“I’m _what?_ ” asked Chamomile, waiting for Seraphina to finish her sentence, expectantly. “Hmm?”

“Y-you’re... not girly or anything! You’re—you’re—you’re...” mumbled Seraphina. “Guys, help me out here!” she hissed.

“Um... you’re... you’re uh... mature? And independent and not girly? And stuff,” Calypso stuttered. 

“Hmm... they’re not very intelligent... make a note of that, Yena,” said Chamomile.

“Of course,” said the cat. “But I would’ve expected that from mere humans.”

“WAIT, WHAT?! YOU HAVE A TALKING CAT?! AND YOU AREN’T HUMAN?!” yelled Calypso.

“Tsk tsk, Yena. I knew we shouldn’t have rushed into it. Of course their tiny human minds wouldn’t be able to process it so easily,” said Chamomile, rolling her eyes.

“Well, we aren’t all humans!” Inuyasha called.

“Yeah, yeah dog boy. I know that. But a half-demon is still inferior to a species such as shapeshifter,” replied Chamomile as her cat, Yena, transformed into a gorgeous deer with light gray fur that looked silver in the light, then a cat once again, causing the others to gasp in awe. “Or, a sorceress,” said Chamomile, as she created a beautiful blue fire in her hand, then extinguished it with a quick snap of her fingers.

“W-well, whatever. I’m a priestess; I can curse you. So your cat can talk. Why are we here, Chamomile?” Juniper muttered.

“Wait. PLEASE, DO NOT CALL ME _CHAMOMILE_. That name is far too... colloquial. From now on, you must call me BOSS. For I am, from now on, YOUR BOSS.”

“Wait, what?!” screeched Seraphina.

“If you prefer something else, I’d gladly accept Master, Great Sorceress, Queen, Elementia, Chamomile the Great and Powerful, Flame, Burning Fighting Fighter...” droned Chamomile.

“No, not that! Since when are you our boss?!” interrupted Seraphina. “Oh, and is Amber fine?”

“Ooh, I’d like that! Amber is perfect! How’d you come up with it?” squealed Chamomile.

“Actually, I read a lot of fantasy stories! It’s a name of a heroine from one of my books,” said Seraphina.

“Ooh, sounds interesting! What’s it called?” asked Amber.

“STOP WITH THE NAMES!” screamed Calypso. “WHY DID YOU KIDNAP US?”

“Yeah, why are we here?!” seconded Juniper. “But I have to say, I really do like Amber.”

“I know, right? It really captures the essence of—” exclaimed Amber, but stopped mid-sentence, due to Calypso’s glare. “FINE, I’LL TELL YOU WHAT’S GOING ON. I’ve been monitoring different heroes of different places and times, and I’ve chosen you to aid me with my mission.”

“WAIIIIIIIIT. How can we all exist if we’re from different times?!” questioned Seraphina.

“Well, this is an easily explained phenomenon. From _blahblahblahblahblahblahblah_ triggered by _blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah_ but with _blahblahblahlahblahblahblahblahblah_ due to _blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah_ it actually can be possible. Therefore, you can all exist right now!” finished Amber.

“...What?!” asked Calypso.

“Don’t even try to understand,” sighed Yena. “When she gets like this, it’s best to just tune her out. In the meantime, let me show you around.” Yena flicked her tail, and she transformed into a girl of fourteen or fifteen years. Her eyes twinkled, one blue and one brown, as she said, “Let’s go!” and began to lead the group through the enormous mansion.

“WAIT A MINUTE,” realized Seraphina. “She tricked us!” 

“Hmm?” asked Yena, slowing down to hear what Seraphina had to say.

“Oh! I see now!” Juniper chimed in. “She started rambling to avert our attention! She was distracting us!”

“Yeaaaaaaah,” replied Yena. “I... I wish that was true... No, that’s what she’s actually like...”

“Really?” said Calypso uncertainly. “Okay... Anyways, where are you taking us?”

“Well, off to your right are the washrooms, over there is the dining room, that back room over there is your sleeping chamber—” started Yena.

“We’re SLEEPING here?!” interrupted Juniper.

“More importantly,” said Calypso, cutting Juniper off. “WE’RE _LIVING_ HERE?!”

“Well, yeah. I thought Amber made herself clear when she said she was your boss,” replied Yena. “I mean, you’re free to leave at any time, but if you do, you might put this world into extreme danger.”

“How?” demanded Calypso.

“There’s a certain... _individual_ we need to defeat. I’m not going to reveal too many details. All we know is she is one of the most powerful beings in this world, with deadly motives.”

“Okay, so what does that have to do with us?” Seraphina asked.

“Well, the individual _blahblahblahblahblahblahblah_ and _blahblahblahblahblahblahblah_ centre of the universe. The time _blahblahblahblahblah_ capacity of the speed of light _blahblahblahblahblah_. Therefore _blahblahblahblahblah_ and that’s where you guys come in...” Yena explained.

“Um... Uh...?” Calypso spluttered.

“Isn’t that Amber’s thing?” Juniper wondered out loud.

“Sorry, it kind of rubs off on me.” Yena shrugged, embarrassed.

“So what do we have to do now, Miss _Shapeshifter?_ ” snorted Calypso. “Fight _bad guys?_ ”

“Oh, no no NO. You’re QUITE too undertrained. You’d _never_ be able to pull it off,” said Yena, rolling her eyes.

“Oh really? Is that a challenge?” demanded Calypso, eyebrows raised. “I’ll have you know that I’m one of the HIGHEST RANKING CHARACTERS of Alfheim Online!” challenged Calypso, unsheathing her sword.

“You think a SWORD is going to scare me?” exclaimed Yena. “Here, a _training room. How coincidental._ ”

“Oh really? Interesting... Who’ll we be battling?” asked Seraphina as the group entered the room.

“Hmm... how about ME?” said Yena, as she suddenly struck down Juniper with a powerful punch.

“HEY!” yelled Juniper, surprisedly whipping out an arrow from her quiver.

“You have to catch me before you can shoot me!” grinned Yena as she shifted into a sleek and shimmering dragonfly, and flew out of sight.

Seraphina quickly got out her sketchbook and summoned her Doodle Dragon while Calypso scanned the room for the dragonfly, with her sword ready to strike. The Dragon roared suddenly and indicated that Yena was hovering near the chandelier in the dining room.

“GET HER!” Seraphina commanded. Immediately the Doodle Dragon flew up to the chandelier and slammed into it, causing the chandelier to crash into the elegant marble stone dining table and shatter into many pieces.

“SHIKIGAMI, GO!” Juniper shouted. Abruptly, multiple clones of Juniper appeared in front of Calypso.

“What the hell?” Calypso said. She raised her sword to cut them down, but they simply jumped out of the way. 

“That’s pretty creepy,” Seraphina said, staring at Juniper’s shikigami.

“Whatever, capture Yena!” Juniper ordered. The shikigami instantly began hovering in the air, hot in pursuit of Yena. But Yena the dragonfly darted away quickly, leaving the shikigami confused and frustrated.

Yena immediately shifted back into a human and giggled. “Like I thought,” she said, smiling. “You’re not ready yet... but don’t worry!” She grinned. “I’ll train you to the best of your ability! And I have a secret. Amber and I act really tough and mean, but we’re doing this for your own good. Pushing you is the only way for you to improve!” Yena winked and laughed again.

“Oh yeah? Well I challenge you to a swordfight!” shouted Calypso. “And you’re not allowed to shapeshift!” 

“And if you shapeshift, I’ll lure you out with mayose,” Juniper added. 

“You challenge people WAAAY too much...” muttered Seraphina.

“Fine,” replied Yena. “But if I win, you can’t resist Amber or I anymore!”

“And if—sorry, WHEN I win, you have to let me out. You have to let all of us out!”

“GO CALYPSO!” Juniper hollered.

“YOU CAN DO IT CALYPSO!” Seraphina cheered.

“Of course,” said Yena, smiling. Yena waved her hand and a sword appeared in it. “Don’t worry, this won’t hurt you. It’s foil tipped,” assured Yena. “Now let’s battle!”

Calypso and Yena began circling each other slowly. Swiftly, Calypso charged and swung her sword at Yena. 

Yena calmly dodged it. She stepped back as Calypso aimed another blow. “Hmm...” noted Yena to herself. “Aims for the lower abdomen, leaving her chest vulnerable...” 

She dodged again and again as Calypso started to rapidly slash in the shapeshifter’s direction. As expected, Calypso slashed at Yena’s waist, leaving Calypso’s chest open. Quickly, Yena stabbed at Calypso, ending the match.

“I DEMAND A REMATCH!” Calypso shouted.

“A deal’s a deal. You can’t resist Amber and I anymore,” Yena replied triumphantly. “So Amber is now your boss and you have to listen to her.”

“I’M GOING TO CURSE YOU, CALYPSO!” Juniper bellowed.

“You guys are really out of shape. There is a long way of training to get to the high standards of Amber and I,” Yena declared.

“Great, now I am stuck in this mansion with these two idiots AND I have to train?” Seraphina complained as Yena nodded.

Suddenly, Amber strolled in and sighed, noticing the shattered furniture. “I see they’ve destroyed all my furniture. Challenged you, I presume?”

Yena nodded and sighed. “They require a lot of training if they are to be ready. They didn’t even get past the dragonfly...”

“Yikes. Anyways, you will begin your training tomorrow. All the hygiene, clothing and other necessities will already be prepared in your sleeping quarters,” said Amber as she led them to the bedroom.

The sleeping quarters were oddly very comforting, with fluffy velvet bunk beds on one side of the room, and a bathroom in another room by the corner. Opposite of the beds was a sparkling vanity, next to a wardrobe, already filled with clothes.

“I CALL THE TOP BUNK!” Juniper screamed.

“Aww, I wanted the top bunk!” Seraphina exclaimed as she immediately raced to claim the bottom bunk.

“Sheesh, are they always this energetic?” Amber asked Calypso, plugging her ears. “Anyways, get to bed everyone! Your training starts tomorrow. Thanks for your help, Amu, Kirito and Inuyasha. You can go now. I’ll call you again if I need you! Now go to bed, breakfast is at eight. You can either take it or leave it, but the only food here is what we serve.”

“Good night!” called Yena as she turned out the lights and started walking with Amber to discuss further details.

“G-guys?” called Seraphina.

“Yeah?” answered Calypso and Juniper.

“G-good night...” stammered Seraphina. “We did... we did... well... today...” she mumbled as she and the others drifted off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Originally written:_ ** _July 2014._
> 
> And thus begins the tale of these three girls and their bond of "we got kidnapped and now we're being forced to work??" Also, I feel like half the dialogue was in all caps


	3. Behind the Blindfold

“Wake up, Calypso.” Juniper yanked the covers off Calypso’s bed.

“Go away.” Calypso shifted on her bed, covering her head with her pillow.

“It’s already seven-thirty. Breakfast is in half an hour,” said Seraphina, who was already awake and pretty much ready. She was tying back her long and dark brown hair into her usual pigtails. 

“Fine, fine,” Calypso muttered as she sat up from her bed. She tugged at the string holding a shark tooth, straightening the strange necklace that she always wore. 

“You should really change your clothes. They’re all bloody!” Seraphina exclaimed to Juniper while looking away in disgust. “Why did no one change yesterday when we went to bed?”

“It is not my fault demons attack me,” Juniper said defensively, patting down the bloodied kimono that she was still wearing. She also re-tied her long hair, but even after Juniper was done, her hair still seemed messy to both Seraphina and Calypso. “And it is not like _you_ changed or anything.”

“Well, it’s your fault that you attract demons,” Seraphina replied.

“Bu—”

“Enough chatting, let’s get ready,” Calypso mumbled. In the time that Juniper and Seraphina were talking, Calypso had redone her hair, tying it up into a neat ponytail after it had become messy during the night. The room was then silent as the three girls got ready for breakfast and the long day of training ahead of them.

When they reached at the dining room (which took much longer than they had expected since nobody actually knew where the dining room _was),_ they were greeted by Yena’s disapproving glance.

“It’s only the first day, and you’re already late?” she sighed. 

“Well, it’s not our fault you guys have a fifty-story mansion with a million different hallways and a billion different rooms,” Calypso snapped. “I bet you guys could fit the entire world’s population here with only one person per room.”

“It’s a _ten-_ story mansion,” Yena corrected with a roll of her eyes. “And we don’t actually have that many rooms.” She then gestured to the dining table behind her, which was already set with four plates of food. “Now hurry up and start eating. I don’t want to waste more time when you three are already late.”

A somewhat awkward silence ensued as the four quietly ate their food, until Seraphina spoke up.

“These eggs aren’t salty enough,” she complained.

“You get what you get and don’t get upset,” Yena replied.

“Are we toddlers now? _”_ Calypso snorted.

Seraphina jerked back as Juniper abruptly splashed Seraphina’s plate with a spray of what looked like salt.

“Wh-What?” Seraphina yelped.

“You said your eggs were not salty enough,” Juniper said, shrugging slightly. “There’s your salt.”

“Isn’t this purification salt?” Seraphina cried. “Can we even eat that safely?”

“Of course,” Juniper replied. “It only has an effect on demons. It is perfectly safe for humans like us.”

“Juniper, I can’t tell if you’re joking with this purification salt thing or actually serious,” Calypso commented.

Seraphina slowly ate a piece of her over-salted eggs, before looking surprisingly happy. “It’s actually not bad!” Seraphina said happily, taking in another forkful of her meal.

“All right,” Yena interrupted, standing up. “Breakfast’s over.”

“That was literally five minutes,” Calypso protested. “How do you expect us to eat so fast?”

“It’s your own fault for being late,” Yena pointed out as she began gathering the plates. “Now hurry up and get to the training room. Amber’s waiting, and just so you know, she _hates_ tardiness.” After gathering all of the dishes, Yena walked out of room.

“Wait!” Seraphina said, but Yena had already left the room. “But... we don’t know where the training room is...”

After an extremely long period of exploring and backtracking, the three girls finally found the training hall.

“I've been waiting for _thirty-six minutes,”_ a voice hissed the moment they set foot into the room. A very irritated Amber was standing in the middle of the training room, her head tilted in a way that was somehow menacing as she glowered at the girls. 

“What have you been doing?” Amber seethed.

“Trying to find the training room,” Calypso answered, her annoyance obvious in her every word. “Do you _know_ how hard it is to navigate through your stupid mansion, especially with two people who are clueless with direction?!”

“Hey, it’s your fault in the first place for waking up late, Calypso!” Seraphina protested, while Juniper slightly nodded in agreement. “If you woke up on time we would have been able to eat breakfast! And it’s not like _you_ had a better sense of direction than we did!”

“ENOUGH,” Amber said. “You three are late for training by almost an HOUR. I don’t care about your excuses.”

Calypso opened her mouth and took a small breath, probably about to snap back at Amber, but then she paused and closed it again with a slight scowl as Amber shot her a glare.

“All right,” Amber began, still glaring at Calypso, who glared back. “I’m going to begin this lesson with something called the sixth sense. In my world, mages learn about it when they enter their advanced stage of magical training, but don’t get intimidated by that. It’s actually quite simple and easy. Basically, all you have to do is learn how to be aware of your surroundings and concentrate. The sixth sense is in every living creature, although only those who train can use it freely. But once you do, it’ll be incredibly helpful. Let me show you.” A piece of cloth magically appeared in her palm, before she took off her glasses and tied it over her eyes. As she did it, pieces of furniture like tables and couches materialized all around the room.

“I’m adding the furniture here to make it harder, because the training room is too empty,” Amber said. “Now, Seraphina, go hide somewhere in this room.”

Hesitantly, Seraphina slid behind a red velvet couch near the back wall of the room.

“She is ready,” Juniper called.

After a few seconds, Amber confidently turned around and walked towards the back wall, stopping right in front of the couch.

“Found you,” Amber said as she pulled off her blindfold.

“Are you sure that wasn’t some kind of magic?” Calypso snorted as Seraphina walked back to the front of the room, looking impressed.

“I don’t cheat,” Amber scoffed. “And remember, if you really want to be able to use your sixth sense properly, then you’ll have to practice a lot. At some point, it’ll become like an instinct. When you start, try blocking off every thought, and just concentrate. If you do it correctly, you’ll start feeling something that your other five senses can’t sense. It’s hard to explain now, but once you do it, you’ll get it.” She turned around to face the three girls. “So, who wants to try first?”

“I'll go,” Calypso said after a moment of silence.

“Okay.” Amber nodded, handing Calypso the blindfold. “I’ll be hiding this time, so Seraphina will tell you when I’m ready.”

After Amber disappeared behind the same couch that Seraphina had hidden behind, Seraphina gave Calypso the signal to start.

Almost immediately after Seraphina said, “She's ready,” Calypso whipped her sword out of its sheath with a swirl of wind. That one sword stroke left a table collapsing to the ground with broken legs. She then went around the room slashing around with her sword which destroyed any furniture in her path, not looking like she cared about where Amber was at all.

Half the room was a wreck by the time Amber hurtled out from behind the couch.

“STOP!” she screamed with a manic flick of her wrist that sent Calypso’s sword flying out of her hand. “Can I ask you WHAT THE HELL YOU’RE DOING?”

Calypso paused in her rampage, turning to her with a smirk.

“Calm down, I was finding you,” she said, obviously amused as she went to retrieve her sword. “You just never said exactly how.”

“Yes, I did. Maybe you didn’t hear, or you’re just an idiot—I think it’s the latter— but I told you to use your sixth sense,” Amber replied scathingly, looking just about ready to set Calypso on fire

“I _was_ using it. I also just got rid of the obstacles in my way,” Calypso replied. “I don’t see the problem with that.”

“Then you're blind,” Amber retorted. With a motion of her hand, the wrecked furniture reassembled themselves and returned to their previous positions. After a moment, she also magically yanked Calypso’s sword out of her hand.

“Hey!” Calypso protested, but Amber had already made it disappear with a swirl of fire.

“Since I've seen that you are _incapable_ of holding back your violent impulses, I'm confiscating your sword for the rest of this session,” Amber said, which Calypso responded to with a glare. Amber ignored it, turning to the Juniper and Seraphina. “Now, who wants to go next?”

Both girls were silent for a few minutes, before Juniper volunteered.

“I’ll be hiding this time, so Calypso will tell you when I’m ready,” Amber said. “Actually wait. I don’t trust her. _Seraphina_ will be telling you when I’m ready.”

Calypso snorted.

After Juniper tied the blindfold over her eyes, Amber ducked behind a tall chair in the corner of the room behind Juniper.

“She’s ready,” Calypso said.

Juniper slowly nodded. She didn’t move from her spot as she held her breath, probably to listen for Amber’s breathing. Amber seemed to notice this as she held her own breath, but it seemed like Juniper still managed to hear her as she began slowly walking towards Amber’s chair, before almost tripping over a coffee table in the process. 

She seemed to know where _Amber_ was, but not the furniture, as she spent the next five minutes trying to get past a four-piece sofa sectional, looking more and more frustrated each time.

Finally, she seemed to give up figuring where the sofa sectional ended and instead whipped out something from her inside her sleeve. With a puff of smoke, ten Junipers appeared in the room, and together, they lifted the sofas to clear Juniper a path.

“Wait, is that even allowed?” Seraphina cried.

Juniper strutted across the room towards Amber, looking quite pleased with herself as a swarm of Junipers cleared her path for her.

Amber, who was watching Juniper from behind the chair, facepalmed and walked out from behind the plant. Juniper seemed to hear her, and slowly took off the blindfold.

“What? Why did you reveal yourself?” Juniper asked. “I was almost about to find you.” 

_“Well._ First of all, _what is this?”_ Amber said, already looking exhausted as she made enormous hand gestures to the mob of Junipers, which was in the middle of carrying away a grand piano.

“They are shikigami,” Juniper replied matter-of-factly, not registering Amber’s exasperated hand gestures.

Amber facepalmed, sighing. “That's not the point...” 

Juniper slightly frowned, still looking puzzled.

“Juniper, the point of this exercise is to develop your sixth sense,” Amber went on. “I think you're too focused on the task of finding me, and relying on your other five senses to do so instead of using your sixth sense, which is what this exercise is about. That's why you weren't able to sense the furniture, because you weren't using your sixth sense and too focused on finding me.”

“But as long as I can find you, it does not really matter how, does it?” Juniper replied.

“It does,” Amber said. “Training in the sixth sense is actually very useful. Well, I guess you _did_ do a pretty okay job of finding me, but next time just try to use your sixth sense, all right?” Juniper slowly nodded as Amber turned to face Seraphina. “All right then. Seraphina, you’re the last one.”

“Do I have to?” Seraphina said.

“Yes.”

“But how do I do it if there are ten extra Junipers in the room?” Seraphina whined, as the shikigami all blankly blinked at Seraphina in unison.

“Just slash them all until there are no more left!” Calypso chimed in.

“Calypso, keep your homicidal tendencies to yourself,” Amber snorted. “Seraphina, it’s fine. They probably won’t get in the way. Right, Juniper?”

“Yes,” all eleven Junipers replied in unison.

“Um, okay...” Seraphina hesitantly put on the blindfold as Amber hid behind a tall potted plant near the back wall of the room. At the signal, she slowly walked forwards, almost knocking over a lamp.

“I don’t feel anything,” Seraphina muttered as she continued walking.

“If you’re stuck, just break a few tables and you’ll be sure to find her,” Calypso commented, smirking at Amber’s glare.

“Wait, I think I’m feeling something,” Seraphina said, cautiously taking a step towards the back wall. “I’m not sure, but it feels like someone’s there...” She yelped as she walked right into the potted plant that Amber was hiding behind, knocking it over and staining the ground with soil.

“Oops,” Seraphina said. “Uh, are you here, Amber? I feel like someone’s here...”

Amber pulled off Seraphina’s blindfold, looking pleased.

“Good job!” Amber said, looking somewhat pleased for the first time since the girls arrived at the mansion. “I almost completely gave up all hope in the three of you. Mostly because of Calypso. Actually, _because_ of Calypso.”

Calypso rolled her eyes as Amber turned to face both her and Juniper.

“Do you know what Seraphina did that let her succeed?” Amber said. “She took her time and _concentrated._ She was able to focus, and although her skills are obviously newly developed, she was still able to find me. Next time we train for sixth sense, try doing that. Instead of _going crazy,”_ she finished, with a pointed glance at Calypso,

“My method was still the most efficient,” Calypso muttered.

“And the most _stupid,”_ Amber snapped. “All right. Lesson’s over. You may now go rest. Except you, Calypso. You’re going to do some chores for me, since you decided that it was a good idea to destroy my training room.”

“Okay! Bye!” Seraphina said, happily exiting the room as Calypso rolled her eyes.

“Oh, and don’t forget! Lunch is soon, so don’t eat anything big,” Amber called after her. “We’ll resume training after lunch.”

“Wait, Amber, I have a question,” Juniper said.

“Hm?”

Juniper pulled out a round, light purple jewel from her pocket.

“What's that?” Amber said, touching it with one finger.

“The Shikon Jewel,” Juniper replied. “It is supposed to be broken. When I came to your world, I felt something strange with the shards that I carried. Yesterday night I found out that it was whole again. Do you know why?”

Amber looked puzzled. “I'm actually not sure. Maybe something happened while you were in the TSI?”

“Tee yes eye? What is that?”

“Time-space intersection. It’s what I used to get you guys all here,” Amber said. “It's really mysterious, and even I don't know a lot about it. Well, don't worry about it too much. I’m still researching it, and if I found out why, I’ll tell you. Go enjoy your break!”

“Okay.” With a slow nod, Juniper left the room. As she wandered through the hall, she saw Seraphina ahead of her.

“Oh, it’s you,” she said, walking up to Seraphina. “Um, congratulations on finding Yena.”

“Thanks, but I feel like I just got lucky,” Seraphina replied.

“CALYPSO! YOU’RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!” Amber’s voice boomed through the halls.

“Scary,” Seraphina whispered with a shudder. “Amber’s so scary when she’s mad...”

“Did you see her face when Calypso destroyed the room?” Juniper said, amused.

“Yeah, she practically blew up!” Seraphina said. “She looked like she was going to slap her or something!”

“I doubt that,” replied Juniper. “She wouldn’t just slap someone like that. And anyways, her slaps probably aren’t that hard or anything.”

“I HEARD THAT!” Amber’s voice called out from the other room.

“Oh no! She heard! Run away!” Seraphina joked.

Calypso opened the training room door.

“You guys’d better run away. Amber might _actually_ slap you,” Calypso muttered, rubbing her bright red cheek. “And believe it or not, it’s _really painful_.”

Seraphina ran away and hid in the washroom, quickly locking the door. Juniper ran the opposite direction, hid in the first aid center, and erected a barrier.

“Don’t think that I don’t know where you are,” Amber said as she stood in front of the washroom door. “A puny lock won’t stop me.”

“Um, BEHIND YOUR BACK IS A SPIRIT!” Seraphina shouted.

“ _Totally_. Saeki Nobuko’s trademark catchphrase doesn’t scare me. She’s is just some old housewife addicted to miso peanuts,” Amber scoffed. Amber raised her hand and waved it around. The lock on the washroom door instantly broke.

Seraphina screamed as Amber stepped into the washroom. Without thinking, she dashed out of the washroom and blindly ran down the halls of the grand mansion.

“Humans are so easily frightened...” Amber sighed. She turned around snapped her fingers, motioning Calypso to follow her. “Come on, Calypso! You still have A LOT to do.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Calypso muttered as she followed Amber back into the training hall.

“Thank goodness, it’s just you,” Juniper sighed as Seraphina dashed in and explained to her what happened. The two sat silently inside the barrier.

“Um,” Juniper said, trying to ease the awkwardness. “So lunch is in around fifteen minutes. So do you think we should be heading to the dining room now?”

“I don’t know...” Seraphina replied. “Amber still might be out there...”

“It will be fine,” Juniper insisted. “I’m not scared of Amber!”

“Aren’t you the one who set up an entire barrier just to protect yourself from her?” Seraphina pointed out.

“Whatever,” Juniper muttered. “I am not skipping lunch just because I’m scared of her. Besides, I need to eat to be able to have enough energy to keep up this barrier.”

“I still have second thoughts...” Seraphina replied, unconvinced.

“Listen!” exclaimed Juniper, in a surprisingly angry tone. “Do you want to eat or not?”

“Fine...” Seraphina muttered. 

The two girls started sneaking down the hall, hiding as best as they can when they thought they heard footsteps, to the dining room. 

“I will send one of my shikigami down there, to see if Amber is in the room!” Juniper declared when they reached the dining room. A copy of Juniper appeared and walked towards the dining room.

After five minutes, Seraphina was getting restless. “What’s taking it so long?!” she asked worriedly.

“I don’t know. Maybe something happened to it. It fades when you deal damage to it. Maybe Calypso slashed it?” Juniper wondered.

“Or maybe Amber slapped it so hard that it faded!” Seraphina joked.

“That could be possible,” Juniper said.

When five minutes of waiting turned to ten minutes, Seraphina became more and more restless. After a bit of arguing, they agreed to peek into the dining room to see what happened.

“Oh! Look! The shikigami is eating lunch. Maybe Amber forgave us?” Seraphina said hopefully.

“You think that I wouldn’t know that it was fake?” a voice behind them called.

Both girls turned around to find Amber in the doorway.

“Seriously? You thought you could trick me with your little clone?” said Amber, rolling her eyes. “And now that the shikigaki is eating lunch, you can’t. So because of that idiotic move, you won’t be able to eat lunch.”

“It’s called shikigami,” Juniper muttered.

“That’s not fair!” whined Seraphina.

“But it’s _my_ shikigami. Not Seraphina’s. At least let _her_ eat lunch,” Juniper pleaded. Right after she said this, her barrier faded away.

“Dung it...” Juniper whispered as she tried and tried to create another barrier. “I don’t care. Just let Seraphina eat,” Juniper grumbled as she walked away.

“Come on Seraphina, Calypso’s waiting for you,” Amber said.

“Hi Seraphina!” Calypso called as Seraphina stood in front of the table. Juniper’s shikigami was eating a plate of spaghetti.

“Hi,” Seraphina said as she sat down.

“Juniper, can I have some salt?” Calypso asked the shikigami, clearly not knowing that it was fake.

 **“** _I don’t have any_ ,” the shikigami said emotionlessly.

“What’s with her?” Calypso wondered.

“Uh...” Seraphina said. “She’s a shikigami.”

“Then where’s the real Juniper?” Calypso said.

Seraphina summarized what had happened, ending her story with Juniper trudging away. Right after, Calypso suddenly unsheathed her longsword and sliced the shikigami in half. It began fading, turning ghostly and see-through until it disappeared completely.

“What was that for?” Seraphina said.

“Now Juniper can have her lunch!” Calypso replied.

“Oh. Um. Sure,” Seraphina said, staring at the single strand of spaghetti that remained on the plate. 

“At least there’s still a meatball.” Calypso shrugged.

“What happened?” Juniper asked from the doorway. “I sensed my shikigami disappearing.”

“Were you just standing there the whole time?” Calypso muttered. “Not creepy at all.”

“You can eat now!” Seraphina said. “Calypso—uh, she forcibly removed the shigikami for you!” 

“What is this food anyways?” Juniper said, glancing at her meal. “And why is there only one noodle strand and one ball of meat left?”

“Your shimigami ate the rest,” Calypso replied. “Wait, if you sent your shinigami to check the dining room, why did it start eating your lunch?”

“I don’t know. They do weird things sometimes if I don’t order them around,” Juniper explained, prodding at the strand of spaghetti and the meatball.

“Okay...” Seraphina said.

“It’s fine. I don’t really like foreign food. You can have the rest of what’s left of mine,” Juniper offered, pushing the plate towards Seraphina.

“Thanks,” Calypso said as she quickly ate the meatball.

“HEY! I wanted that! Juniper gave it to me!” Seraphina said, quickly taking the strand of spaghetti and eating it.

“Okay. Lunch is over. Training resumes in the courtyard in ten minutes. Get yourselves ready,” Yena ordered as she cleared the table.

Ten minutes later, the three girls were standing in the courtyard, waiting for Amber to instruct them. In front of them loomed an enormous hedge maze whose walls were probably taller than the heights of the three girls combined.

“Lesson two. As you may see, there is a hedge maze in front of you. It’s not an ordinary maze. This maze may seem easy because it only has three entrances, but it’s incredibly large, so it’s quite difficult to get through,” Amber explained. “Along the way you will encounter traps. They may hurt, but they won’t kill you. Your goal is to reach the end of the maze as fast as you can. Don’t dawdle; I’ll be timing you. You will execute this without your weapons, nor with the help of dragons or magic or clones.”

“But what if we get stuck in a trap for a long time and don’t make it to the end?” Seraphina asked, clearly nervous.

“Well, you’ll have to trust you instincts, use your common sense if you have it, be alert for danger, and be aware of your surroundings. And _use your sixth sense_ ,” Yena answered. “Remember, this entire exercise is to help you gain better judgement and intuition, which would help with your sixth sense training.”

“I want you three to split up,” Amber said. “The first one that gets to the end of the maze will gain a compliment from me. There is a high possibility of getting lost. If you really need help, call for Yena. She will be circling from above, keeping watch on you.”

“But what if we get shot by the arrows? Can we use the ones that fell onto the ground?” Juniper said.

“Well, the arrows aren’t _that_ sharp. They won’t cause severe damage. They are easy to dodge... if you know how to. Once the arrows hit the ground, they’ll fade and disappear,” Amber said.

“Damn it,” Juniper muttered. “But what if—”

“Stop asking unnecessary questions and get ready!” Amber said. “Calypso, Seraphina, Juniper, hurry up and choose your entrance.”

“I call entrance one!” Calypso said.

“I call entrance two!” Juniper said.

“That leaves me with entrance fifty-two. Why does the number suddenly increase to fifty-two?” Seraphina cried.

“Stop asking questions and get ready!” Amber yelled crossly. “Only go when Yena tells you to!”

The three girls walked up to their entrance, anticipation hanging in the air as they waited for Yena’s signal. A light gray falcon cawed “GO!” as it circled above them.

The three girls instantly shot off into the maze.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Originally written:_ ** _July 2014._
> 
> AMBER WHAT KIND OF TRAINING IS THIS WHAT


	4. Through the Minefield Maze

Calypso instantly shot into the maze at Yena’s signal, eager to make it to the end before Seraphina or Juniper.

 _If the traps don’t kill me, then they can’t be_ that _dangerous._ Calypso inwardly snorted. _Amber was probably just exaggerating to scare us so we don’t do anything “stupid.”_

Calypso reached a fork and turned to the right without hesitation She decided that there was no point wasting time choosing a path, because it wasn’t like she actually _knew_ the maze’s layout in the first place.

The path in front of her was strangely empty, without any signs of triplines or hidden tiles like she had expected. Then, suddenly, a shock ran through her body from her foot and she collapsed onto the ground, numb.

Looking back, she saw that she had stepped on some sort of mine. She groaned when she realized that the entire path was probably filled with them.

“Are all of the traps going to be just as annoying?” Calypso muttered, clutching her tingling foot.

“Okay, Amber said that I have to use my sixth sense,” Seraphina said to herself as she cautiously walked down a path in the maze. “So I have to keep my senses aler—”

The ground beneath Seraphina suddenly collapsed underneath her foot, and she fell onto a pile of soft soil at the bottom of a concealed pit.

“Well, that’s nice.” She winced and took a deep breath before climbing out of the hole and dusting off her clothing.

“Wait...” Seraphina whispered, an idea dawning in her mind. “Magic isn’t allowed... but what about Shugo Chara? They’re technically real, even if basically no one can see them.” After saying that, Seraphina dug into her pocket and pulled out a blue egg with colourful paint splotch patterns on it.

“Karin?” Seraphina asked as the egg cracked and out popped a Shugo Chara. 

“ _Hi Seraphina. There wasn’t any creepy kidnapper, right? And why are we in a maze now_?” Karin asked in her high pitched voice.

“Whatever about what happened, I need help to get out of this maze!” Seraphina said to Karin. “Can we character transform? I’m not sure if I want to get blown to pieces by a mine or something.”

 _“Sure.”_ Karin shrugged, character transforming with Seraphina in a flurry of sparkles.

“Character transformation, Artistic Elegance!” Seraphina exclaimed, winking and posing automatically. Then she quickly glanced around to make sure that nobody was watching her do something so flashy.

“ _Let’s get out of here,_ ” Karin whispered to Seraphina.

Seraphina walked forward, a bit more confident now that she had Karin with her. But her foot caught on a tripwire and a bunch of leaves floated out from the hedge walls.

“ _Seraphina, they look like poison ivy leaves,”_ Karin said. _“We shouldn’t touch them.”_

“WATERCOLOUR GLAZE!” Seraphina shouted. Immediately, a colorful force field surrounded her, and the poisonous leaves harmlessly fell out of the way.

“This might actually be kind of fun,” Seraphina murmured, relieved that she hadn’t died because of poisonous leaves or whatever. “If only all of the other traps were as slow as this one...”

“Okay. I have to keep alert for traps,” Juniper said to herself, hoping that by repeating it to herself, she would be more attentive. “Amber says the arrows fade when they touch the ground, but can’t I just catch them in mid-air? Then I could probably use them, if I could make a bow... Well, catching them is the hard part.” Right after she said that, arrows began flying at her from the hedge walls on either side of her.

Juniper leapt back and out of the range of the arrows, before realizing that she was supposed to be catching them. She then leapt into the midst of the chaotic arrow-shooting, attempting to quickly catch some and dart back out. 

“Ow!” Juniper winced as one of the arrows nicked her palm as she caught it. Catching the arrows was a harder and more painful process than she expected, and it took several tries (and injuries) to catch a measly four. 

“That’s convenient,” Juniper said as she saw a long and flat stick lying under the hedges. “That’s perfect, though it probably won’t be able to withstand that much power... Either way, though, it’s better than nothing.” Juniper ran to pick up the stick, and began to search for a suitable rock to use to carve the stick into a better shape.

Calypso charged through the maze, finally out of that stupid minefield. Her clothes were all dusty from repeatedly falling to the ground, and her body still felt a little numb. 

She sprinted down the path as fast as she could, hoping to make up for the time she lost while in the minefield. There was another fork at the end of her path, and she turned left this time, only to be greeted by a dead end. 

She whipped around and sprinted down the right fork, before skidding to a stop, almost running into another hedge wall: a second dead end. 

“First that dumb minefield, and now this! Why is life so unfair?”

“There! Done!” Juniper held up the bow to examine it. “Good enough.” She strung the bow with her extra bowstring, and stretched the bow a couple of times to test out the weight.

“Well, all I can do with this is to shoot ahead and hope that the arrows hit tripwires, right?” Juniper mumbled to herself. “Though I doubt that I’m going to hit many of them.”

Drawing the bowstring, she brought the bow low to the ground, releasing close to the dirt floor. She could see the faint glisten of the clear tripwire up ahead, and took aim. The arrow shot ahead, and luckily, it hit it. Ahead of her, a bundle of leaves magically appeared and fell from the air, floating peacefully down to the ground. 

“Wait, how is that a trap?” Juniper questioned, her gaze sweeping over the leaves. “Even if you touch those leaves, all you’ll get is a rash...”

She shrugged and walked over the leaves, her shoes protecting her from any contact with them. “Well, at least I won’t have to worry about as many traps anymore,” she murmured to herself. “I can mostly activate them from shooting arrows. All I have to worry about are the traps which _aren’t_ activated by my shooting.”

“WATERCOLOUR GLAZE!” Seraphina yelled, protecting herself from yet another arrow trap. She reached a five-way fork in the road and paused as she was forced to decide between one of the five different paths.

“Which one should I take?” Seraphina muttered to herself, hating the fact that she had to make a decision. “Karin, what do you think?”

“ _How should I know? I’m not omniscient,_ ” Karin replied. “ _Try using your sixth sense_.”

“If you say so...” Seraphina sighed and closed her eyes tightly, trying to concentrate on the paths ahead of her. She didn’t get any helpful visions or prophecies in her mind, like she would have liked. But then a vague feeling drifted into her mind, telling her to go down the fourth path, but it was so fuzzy that she wouldn’t be surprised to find out later that she had just imagined it out of desperation. “Hmmm... I _think_ I’m feeling something, but I’m not really sure...”

“ _Which path_?” Karin asked.

“I think we should take the fourth one...” Seraphina replied, opening her eyes. “I _think_.”

“ _Then let’s go_ !” Karin said cheerfully. “ _The faster we get out of here, the better.”_

Seraphina just sighed as she went along with Karin’s enthusiasm.

“Okay, now I’m _definitely_ sure I passed by here before,” Calypso muttered, glaring at the path in front of her. “This was where I got annoyed and kicked a hole in the hedge.” She peered through the oddly shaped hole in the hedge.

“Wait, why don’t I just kick holes in the hedges?” Without a moment to lose, Calypso kicked a larger hole in a hedge and ran through it.

“Why didn’t I do this in the beginning?” Calypso smirked. She kicked another hole in the hedge wall right in front of her and leapt through it, suddenly finding the training a lot more fun.

“Damn it. I ran out of arrows,” Juniper sighed as she walked down the path, wary of traps.

“Well, maybe sticks would work, though I probably won’t be able to shoot as straight,” Juniper remarked. She pocketed any sticks she passed by, activating a couple of traps. Luckily, her senses and reflexes were sharp enough to help her avoid the traps in time.

“Let’s see if they work,” Juniper said, excited as she shot one in front of her. It whirred through the air and set off a trap. Luckily for Juniper, the trap shot arrows out, and Juniper leapt into the midst of the arrows, dodging and catching them.

“Damn it,” Juniper winced as an arrow made its way into her shoulder.

“Darn it. I think I’m lost; I’m pretty sure I’ve passed here before...” Seraphina muttered, peering around the hedges and hoping to be able to see a distinctive marking on one of the leafy walls.

“ _I know! Why don’t you just draw a line on the ground so we can remember where we’ve been?_ ” Karin burst out.

“Okay, but I don’t think that’s going to help our problem much...” Seraphina replied as she started to draw a thick line of dark blue on the ground using her giant paintbrush. As they wandered around a bit more, though, Seraphina noticed large, unnatural holes in the hedges.

“ _Who did that?_ ” Karin wondered.

“Maybe an animal... Or Calypso,” Seraphina laughed. “She _did_ break quite a lot of things during training this morning.”

“ _Well, I doubt that what she does will affect us much._ ” Karin shrugged internally. “ _Let’s hurry up; there’s a fork in the path up ahead!_ ” 

Seraphina followed Karin’s instructions yet again, hefting her large paintbrush and dragging it behind her. She jogged ahead, but paused at the fork in the road, just in time for her to be hit by someone. Or rather, two someones...

“Should I go left or right?” Calypso murmured as she dashed up to a fork. “Actually, I think I’ll go left this time, since I went right last time.”

At least ten turns later, Calypso was back at the same fork in the path.

“Ugh. Why is this maze so stupid? How does it have so many loops?” Frustrated, Calypso resorted to dashing around the maze randomly. However, she didn't get very far when two other people ran into her...

“Darn it,” Juniper cursed as she wound around paths, a hand over her injured shoulder. “Why can’t I find this exit? What is the point of even _doing_ a maze? And weren’t the traps _not_ supposed to be harmful?”

With a frustrated huff, Juniper stalked ahead to a fork in the road, where she paused and kicked at the ground. “What is the point of doing this? I don’t believe that I’ve gained any so-called ‘better judgement and intuition’ so far. And what is wrong with _my_ judgement? I’m fairly certain that I have a perfectly logical mindset.”

She glared at the paths surrounding her, before two blurs of colour rammed into her...

“Watch where you’re going!” Calypso yelled. “Now I have paint all over me!”

“Ow!” Seraphina complained. “How do you run with such force?”

“Ow! That’s my shoulder!” Juniper cried.

“Wait, what?” Calypso said, glaring at Juniper and Seraphina. “How are you guys here?”

“Hey, I could say the same to you,” Seraphina answered, getting up and patting down her clothes.

“Wait, what’s this blue stuff that’s on our clothes?” Juniper asked, apparently over the pain of her shoulder.

“Oh, sorry. That’s my paint. It may not wash off, since I’m pretty sure it’s acrylic.” Seraphina said. “Though it’s not exactly my fault that you guys came and crashed into me while I was carrying my paintbrush. Isn’t there like a really low chance of us getting out, let alone _meeting_ each other in this maze? And all _three_ of us?”

“Wait, Seraphina. Why are you wearing such weird clothing? And where did you get that paint brush?” Calypso asked. “And where would you get paint here?”

“Well, I did a character transformation with my Shugo Chara, Karin. It’s kind of a long story,” Seraphina said.

“ _Hello_ ,” Karin said shyly.

“Cool. You own a tiny floating person which can... transform with you?” Calypso observed.

“Wait, isn’t that basically magic?” Juniper asked.

“Hey, Karin isn’t magic. She’s real,” Seraphina answered. “And how come you guys can see her?”

“We can’t,” Juniper replied simply. “I just heard her say ‘hello’.”

“You guys are both lost too, right?” Calypso said.

“Yes,” Juniper replied. “Although that’s because I have chosen to refuse to do the maze. I’m currently questioning its purpose and significance—” 

“Oh, I know!” Seraphina exclaimed. “Why don’t we all stick together so we won’t be lost?”

“Yeah, right. Just because there are three people together doesn’t mean that they won’t get lost. It doesn’t work that way.” Calypso scoffed, stalking away and leaving Juniper and Seraphina behind. “Have fun, you two.”

“Well, it’s your choice,” Seraphina called as Calypso left. “It’ll be your fault when you fail to complete this challenge.” She shrugged and turned to Juniper. “Okay. How are we going to do this?”

“I’ll attempt to set off the traps ahead with my bow and sticks,” Juniper said. “And if I fail to set off a trap, you can protect us with your sugo paint powers.”

“First of all, it’s Shugo, not sugo,” Seraphina said. “And not all of Shugo Charas give paint powers.”

“Whatever. Let’s just hurry up and get out of here,” Juniper said.

“This is stupid. I’m still lost, and I don’t think I’ve gotten anywhere,” Calypso muttered. With a huff, she kicked a hole in the hedge. “Right. I can do that.”

What only seemed like minutes to Calypso could have been hours as she ran around, kicking hedges at random and dodging past traps. It was fun before, but now it was becoming tedious and annoying. It wasn’t long before she realized that she was not running in a straight line at all as she noted that she was passing by areas where she had already kicked holes in.

Then, Calypso triggered a trap which she had never seen before. The ground beneath her seemed to suddenly become soft, and she began sinking into it. She tried to squirm back out, but it felt like the ground was gripping her, and she found herself sinking even deeper in.

“Is this _quicksand?_ ” Calypso exclaimed, taken aback. “Where would Amber get _that?_ ”

She knew that she probably shouldn’t struggle, but just standing there, watching the sand level rise (or her own level sinking) was panic-inducing. Within seconds, Calypso had sunken waist deep and was beginning to panic.

“Calm down and take deep breaths,” she muttered. “I can get out by myself. I don’t need the help of anyone to get out of Amber’s dumb traps.”

“HELP!” she screamed at the top of her lungs two seconds later. “HELP!”

Yena, who was circling above and watching Calypso suffer, rolled her eyes before swooping down and landing beside the quicksand, shifting into a human.

Calypso’s eyes lit up. “Yena, thanks! Now help me out of here!”

“Right.” Yena sighed. “To get out of quicksand, you need to increase your area as much as possible. To do that, you have to lean back as if you were floating on your back in a pool. As the quicksand’s pressure lessens on your feet you have to lift them little by little and slowly inch your way out. It’ll get you dirty, but it’s the fastest way. Even then, it may take a while.” She sighed. “I’ll wait here until you’re done the maze”

“Are you really going to wait?” Calypso asked, offended. “I can get out of this dumb maze by myself. I just need to get out of the quicksand.”

“Yeah, I don’t really trust you in this situation,” Yena replied. “When you’re done, I’ll just turn into a dragon and fly you out of the maze. Whether you like it or not,” she finished with a glare.

“That’s not fair—” Calypso stopped herself, noticing how Yena did nothing to hide her exasperation. With a groan, Calypso began slowly leaning back. 

  
  


A while later, Calypso finally got herself out of the pit. “Ugh, now my clothes are all dirty,” she complained, wiping her sandy hands on the slightly cleaner front of her shirt.

“That doesn’t really matter,” Yena scoffed, shifting into an ash-gray dragon. “Now get on; we have to get back to the others.”

“Speaking of which,” Calypso said, climbing onto Yena’s back, “where are they?”

“Oh, they finished hours ago,” Yena replied as she leapt into the air. “All right, let’s go. I’ll show you the path they took.”

“What?” Calypso shouted. “They finished _already?”_

“Yeah,” Yena answered, shrugging slightly. “See, they went in that direction, through there, and followed that path. Over there they were about to go the wrong way, but couldn’t get past that large hole in the ground, so they had to go back, and coincidentally went the correct way. After, they had to go—”

“Yeah, whatever. I get it. They made it, and so what? It’s just a stupid maze. Now let’s get out of here already,” Calypso grumbled.

Yena stopped talking as she headed over a more direct path towards the end of the maze. In a couple of minutes, they had arrived at the exit.

“And here we are!” said Yena, landing and crouching down for Calypso to get off.

Calypso slid off Yena’s back to find that the exit points were all vacant. “You said that everyone was here!” she said.

“They were,” answered Yena simply, shifting back into a human and shrugging again. “But they were getting bored so we had an air hockey tournament inside. After a couple of games, Seraphina and Amber both had three wins, and Juniper had one and I had one. But I think Seraphina and Amber cheated. They must have used their magic and Sugo Powers to win.”

“Okay...?” said Calypso uncertainly. “Well, let’s go inside, then.”

Yena led the way as the two made their way over to the mansion, and entered through a set of back doors. They found the others to be chatting happily and lounging about, something Calypso hadn’t seen in the entire day.

“So, who won?” Calypso asked eagerly.

“No one,” Amber replied before glaring at Seraphina and Juniper. “ _Those_ two were disqualified for using magic and weapons.”

“You never said Shugo Charas were magic!” Seraphina protested. “And they’re technically real. Karin pretty much lives with me! She has all of the qualities of a living organism, like—”

“Does it really matter? You won’t find Sugo Charas or whatever in the real world,” Amber said, shrugging off Seraphina’s explanation.

“What? She _does_ exist! And there are other—”

“Wait, then I won!” said Calypso happily, interrupting Seraphina.

“Yeah, _no_ ,” replied Amber. “As far as I’m concerned, you took the longest, _and_ needed Yena’s help to even _get_ to the finish. So unfortunately, not you, nor anyone else, won.”

“So can we go back to our sleeping chamber now?” Juniper yawned. “We’ve been waiting for hours to do that.”

“Yes. Dinner’s at six-thirty,” Yena answered.

“Thanks,” Seraphina replied as she ambled to the sleeping chambers.

“I still think I should have won,” Calypso grumbled as she trudged away, following Seraphina. Juniper just yawned, and followed the two other girls through the hallways.

“Sometimes I question how sane we were when we decided to recruit those three,” Yena sighed. Amber just nodded in agreement.

Back at the sleeping chamber, the three girls were lying around lazily, tired from the first day of training.

“It’s so unfair! I should have won!” Calypso complained. “ _I’m_ the one who actually stuck to the rules.”

“Even then, it’s still your fault for taking the longest time _and_ needing Yena to help you to the end,” Seraphina countered, sitting up.

“Then how come you guys could use magic?” Calypso asked.

“I’ve already told you, it’s not magic! Shugo Chara are legitimate real things!” Seraphina yelled, ignoring her fatigue. “They have all the characteristics of living things! They can eat if they want to, they can grow and develop, are intelligent, respond to environmental stimuli, adapt to the environment, and they reproduce, technically, since they come from the dreams of their owners!”

“No one cares about that. If Amber considers Sugo Chara as magic, then I do too,” Calypso declared. “It doesn’t matter if they’re living things.”

“It’s Shugo,” Seraphina corrected before continuing. “And if living things aren’t real, then technically, you aren’t real either, right?” She cocked her head at Calypso, as if goading her on to argue.

“That makes no sense,,” Calypso shot back, meeting Seraphina’s challenge with a glare. “Just because all dogs are animals, doesn’t mean that all animals are dogs.”

“I am never going in that maze again,” Juniper said, probably in an attempt to break the tension between Seraphina and Calypso. “Those traps were dumb.”

Calypso was about to ignore Juniper and continue arguing with Seraphina, but Seraphina interrupted her.

“So what should we do? We have an hour to do whatever we want,” Seraphina said to Juniper, ignoring the fact that Calypso was about to say something. “That’s a long time, especially since we don’t have much to do.”

Juniper yawned and lay down on her bed. “I’m going to take a nap...”

“I’ll just sharpen my sword, I guess...” Calypso said, pulling out a whetstone and drawing it across her blade. As a result, though, Seraphina was left with nothing to do but lay in bed and rest for a while, pondering over the day’s events.

One hour later, everyone was at the dining room enjoying their dinner. The hour had passed by fairly awkwardly, but the delicious food that awaited them loosened the tension.

“These mashed potatoes are the best,” Seraphina said, practically inhaling the bowl of mashed potatoes.

“Eating too fast can cause indigestion,” Yena said.

“Can we explore the mansion a bit more after dinner?” Juniper asked.

“Go ahead, as long as you don’t destroy anything,” Amber replied, giving a pointed glare at Calypso.

“I don’t give a damn,” muttered Calypso, receiving another glare from Amber.

“Well, I _do_ ,” Amber hissed, slamming a knife into the table. The three girls gasped, flinching slightly away from the quivering knife that remained thrust into the table.

Yena sighed and walked over to the table, carefully pulling out the knife. “Amber, don’t be a Calypso!”

“There’s somebody else you should be saying that to and I think we all know who that is,” Amber snapped.

“I doubt Calypso would listen if you told her that,” Seraphina said. “I don’t think she’s a person who listens to instructions, considering how many times she did something she wasn’t supposed to.”

“Believe it or not, it’s also the same thing with Amber...” agreed Yena with a sigh. She then added with a sniffle, “I feel kind of bad for us.” 

“Me too,” Juniper added. “Calypso is so mean sometimes!”

“You guys _do_ realise I’m right here, right?” Calypso said. “And all I did was destroy a room and kick a bunch of holes in some hedges.”

“Because that isn’t destructive and violent at all,” Amber said.

“You’re not one to talk either,” Yena sighed. “Anyways, dinner is over. You guys can now go waltz around and explore the mansion. Just DON’T destroy anything.” Everyone in the room gave a sideways glance at Calypso.

“What?” Calypso asked, taken aback. “I have some self-control, you know! I’m not _stupid!”_

“Nobody said you were,” Seraphina said, pretending nothing happened.

“You guys were thinking it!”

“No, we weren’t,” Juniper replied.

“Uh-huh.”

“Anyways, let’s go explore the mansion!” Seraphina said cheerfully, dragging Juniper, and Calypso behind her.

“This place is BIG . . .” said Seraphina.

“You mean HUGE,” Juniper gasped.

“GINORMOUS!” exclaimed Seraphina.

“Didn’t we already learn about the size of the mansion today?” Calypso said, sniffing. “You don’t need to wander around gawking at everything. They’re just rooms.”

“No one cares about that,” Seraphina said. “And they’re very _large_ rooms.”

Calypso just gave a noncommittal snort.

“Are you still mad that you didn’t win the maze?” Seraphina asked. “We were disqualified, too. What’s the point of being so upset, anyways?”

“Well, I should have won, since I was the only _not_ disqualified! Amber probably thinks I’m an idiot, but solving the maze would actually prove to her that I can actually _think,_ ” Calypso said, a sudden passion filling her voice. “But no, I took too long apparently, even though she never mentioned anything about a time limit. And it’s not like I actually _asked_ Yena to fly me out of the maze; I would have been perfectly fine without her!”

Calypso let out an annoyed growl and kicked at a potted plant by the side of a door. It wobbled from the force of Calypso’s kick, but soon tipped over from the weight of the plant itself. The soil inside spilled out, leaving marks on the pristine floor.

“You broke something again!” Juniper cried. “You really have to stop doing that.”

“Who cares,” Calypso muttered. “No one really looks at pots, anyways.”

“That’s not the point!” Seraphina said. “Amber said not to destroy anything!”

“Exactly,” hissed Amber, who appeared out of nowhere behind the girls. “You touch ONE MORE THING and I’ll destroy _all_ of your belongings.”

“Question!” Seraphina raised her hand, breaking apart the mood.

“What?” Amber asked, looking slightly annoyed that her dramatic moment was ruined.

“Are you a stalker?” Seraphina asked innocently. “You seem to know what’s going on everywhere, and you always randomly appear behind us.”

“Just... _instinct_ . Maybe because I actually _trained_ in sixth sense?” Amber replied with a glare at Calypso before vanishing once again.

“She’s actually a stalker,” Juniper whispered to Seraphina.

“Yeah, I think so too,” Seraphina laughed. 

“Wait. Where’s Calypso?”

“Really? We stop looking at her for literally _one second_ , and she goes and disappears?” Seraphina asked, exasperated. “Now we have to find her in this giant _mansion_? Jeez.”

A loud _BOOM!_ then resounded from somewhere in the mansion.

“That’s... probably Calypso,” mumbled Seraphina as she and Juniper both shook their heads. Against their better judgement, they went towards the sound and searched for Calypso.

Sure enough, Seraphina and Juniper found Calypso next to a broken table in another room nearby. Almost immediately after Seraphina and Juniper arrived, Amber appeared behind Calypso with a silver mallet and a crazed look on her face.

“ _DESTROYING TIME...”_ hissed Amber as vanished in a puff of sinister violet smoke.

“Wait. My sword... NO,” gasped Calypso as she chased Amber.

Juniper and Seraphina looked at each other and shook their heads.

“They are both so crazy,” muttered Juniper.

“You mean _insane_ ,” Seraphina replied.

“Both!” exclaimed Seraphina and Juniper in unison. They smiled at each other and, once again, decided to follow Calypso to their room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Originally written:_ ** _July 2014._
> 
> It's not a proper middle-school-written fanfiction without some really, _really_ weird drama that makes no sense, right?


	5. Robots, Races, and Video Games

Calypso swiftly turned corners, arriving just in time to watch Amber shatter her sword into pieces with her hammer with a vicious swing. A harsh shattering noise made the air ring as glinting silver and blue shards flew everywhere.

“Why did you do that?” Calypso shouted, rushing forward and picking up the shards. 

“Well, I _did_ say that I would destroy your things if you destroyed mine,” Amber said. “And to tell the truth, it was going to be disposed of sometime or another.”

Calypso looked up, a glare hardening her face. “What do you mean? Not that I’ll care. Actually, I might. Maybe I’ll hate you even more.”

“Let me explain, sheesh.” Amber rolled her eyes, and Calypso resisted the urge to punch her in the face. “That sword is just a copy of what you have in your game. Your sword from ALO was virtual, obviously, so in order for it to exist in the real world I had to give it a physical body. But since it was all data, it became more of a flimsy excuse for a sword than a real one. If you tried to fight with it, you’d learn that. The hard way. ”

“Then why couldn’t you have told me before? And not just destroy it like that?”

“First of all, you probably wouldn’t listen and just keep on griping about how much you hate training,” Amber said. “And don’t forget that you’re the one who broke half the furniture in this mansion before I decided to do this.”

“And _you’re_ the one that has a million other stupid tables,” Calypso spat. “I have _one_ sword, which I spent weeks saving up my money to—”

“Good for you. Well, your precious sword is useless and, until you learn how to use a proper one, so are you.”

Calypso dropped her sword shards. “Then why the hell did you take me to your mansion?” She stood up and the floor a ferocious kick, sending the remnants of her sword spraying into the air. “So you could destroy my stuff, call me useless, and then give me a lecture on ‘proper’ swords to show me how smart and amazing you are?”

Amber shrugged. “If you want to feel better, then know that you won’t be useless if you train properly.”

“You’d call a toilet useless if it didn’t train properly.”

“No, really. Listen. I brought you here straight from your game, and the abilities of your character somehow... _transferred_ to your physical body and modified it.”

“Okay, okay, I _get_ it—you’re smart. You don’t need to feed me more BS to prove it.”

“It’s not BS. Maybe if you’d just listen for more than five seconds, I could explain it to you properly.” Amber glared at her. “Your character was mostly ability-oriented, so factors like your speed, reaction time, deftness, etcetera, were affected by this. In other words, you’re basically half superhuman in terms of speed. 

“Look”—Amber pointed at Juniper and Seraphina, who’d just arrived and were both panting—“that’s how you were able to catch up to me in a few seconds, even though I flew across half the mansion. I’m not sure if the effect is permanent, but if it is, then you may be able to become a really skilled fighter. With proper training, of course.”

“I don’t need your stupid training. I’m one of the top thousand players in ALO. I know how to fight.”

“You know how to fight in a _game,_ you mean.” Amber sighed. “Anyways, you’ll be getting a _real_ sword soon so you can actually match up with the real world, so get used to it.” 

The sorceress clapped her hands. “All right! Training tomorrow! It’s going to be an evaluation of physical ability, combat prowess, and strategic thinking. Don’t be late!” Amber left the room, gesturing to Yena, who Calypso just noticed. “Can you clean up over here? Thanks.”

“It feels like you go _out of your way_ to annoy her, you know,” Yena said as she began to sweep up the pieces. “That’s just going to result in the destruction of things. From both of you.” She sighed. “And besides, aren’t you happy about what Amber just told you? You’re basically superhuman.”

“What did I do? Break the table?” Calypso said. “

“Well guess what? I don’t GIVE a DAMN,” Calypso said. She paused as she realized that she had caught the attention of Seraphina and Juniper, who were standing by the doorway. 

Calypso lowered her voice and continued. “Besides what would _you_ know? As far as I can tell, all _you_ do is follow Amber around and obey her orders like a slave. You might as well _be_ a slave. Why should I be listening to you?”

“Just saying,” Yena whispered, finishing her sweeping. She cleared her throat to draw the attention of Seraphina and Juniper, although they were probably paying attention already. 

“Anyways, good luck with the evaluation tomorrow!” she said enthusiastically, the previous mood already forgotten, apparently. She sauntered out of the room, dropping off the shattered remains of Calypso’s sword into a trash can. “I’ll be testing you personally, so don’t fail! Make sure to get some sleep, too!” she called as she left.

“Ugh...” Seraphina groaned, walking into the bedroom. “We’ve only trained for one day and we have to do a _test_?” She flopped onto her bed and groaned. 

_“It can’t be that bad,”_ Karin said, peeking out of her egg and watching the three girls curiously. 

“But I suck at sports,” Seraphina replied. Calypso and Juniper stared at her quizzically, causing Seraphina to realize that they couldn’t see Karin. “Oh, I was just talking to Karin.”

They both slowly nodded, and, luckily, didn’t question her any further.

Juniper giggled and threw a pillow at Seraphina. “Don’t be so dramatic. I probably won’t be _that_ hard. What’s it going to be, demon-hunting? Easy.”

“Easy for _you.”_ Seraphina sighed and wrapped her arms around the pillow. “We might have to do some crazy maze again...”

“Stop affecting me with your negative energy!” Juniper said, snatching her pillow back from Seraphina. Juniper placed her pillow carefully onto her bed, making sure to centre the pillow perfectly.

“Can you guys just shut up?!” Calypso snapped, wrapping herself in her blankets and pulling her pillow over her head. “You don’t have to wail about everything!”

“We weren’t _wailing_ ,” Seraphina snorted. “We were _discussing_ it. And it’s not like you want to take the test either, right?”

“No, but I don’t act like it’s the end of the world!” Calypso grumbled.

“But that’s not fair— aren’t you basically a half-demon now?” Juniper said. “Your physical abilities have been enhanced since you’ve been fused with a demon from another world, am I right?”

“Where the hell did you draw that conclusion from?” Calypso muttered.

“And you acted like it was the end of the world when your sword broke,” Seraphina added. “In the medieval ages, swords would break all the time, which is why you can see sword shards and pieces of swords on the ground in a lot of the paintings of battles. You shouldn’t be _that_ devastated. Shouldn’t there be a durability system in your game if it wants to be realistic?”

“That was different, so shut up,” Calypso said.

“Different?” Seraphina scoffed. “And anyways, even if you had your sword, it wouldn't be very useful because like Amber said, it’s way too light, isn’t it?”

“I don’t care,” Calypso muttered through gritted teeth, before pulling her blanket over her head. “GOOD NIGHT.”

“Can’t we be all just be nice to each other for once?” The weariness in Juniper’s sigh was audible in the silence that followed.

After breakfast the next morning, the three girls arrived at the training hall on time for training. Yena was waiting within the training hall for the girls to arrive.

“Wow, you guys aren’t actually late this time,” Yena said as the three girls paused just inside the room. “Calypso, here’s your new sword.” She handed Calypso a sheathed sword.

“What? This is nothing like my old sword,” Calypso growled, unsheathing the sword slightly and staring at the blade’s silver edge.

“And you complain about _our_ whining?” Seraphina huffed.

Calypso unsheathed the sword and balanced it in her hand. “Why is it so heavy? Aren’t I supposed to be superhuman or whatever?”

“Are you sure you’re not deaf?” Yena sighed. “Amber said that since your character was more speed-focused, only factors that affect your speed would be enhanced. Which I believe, _doesn’t_ include your arm strength.

“Also, if the sword’s heavy, then it could be because of how the sword was made,” Yena said. “The point of balance for the sword could be a bit different from your original, but it shouldn’t make _that_ much of a difference. They’re both most likely the same longsword, since that sword in your hands is modeled off of a Norse sword, which is what your game is based off of, right?”

Calypso snorted, ignoring Yena for the most part, before attempting to slash at the air in front of her. Her sword tip wobbled as she tried to keep the sword consistently in the air. “I don’t think a sword’s balance can change the weight _that_ much!”

“Then maybe your previous was just too light,” Yena stated, shrugging.

“Wait, what’s that supposed to mean?” Juniper asked.

“Well, the sword that Calypso used in her game was so light and improbable in the real world, she isn’t used to the weight of a real sword,” Yena explained. “If she can’t keep the tip up with a regular longsword and with two hands, then it’s probably the replica’s fault.”

“If you don’t mind, I’d like you to stop _explaining_ me,” Calypso snapped.

“Meh,” Yena said. “Well, we should start. First up, You are going to run five laps around a field. And Calypso, if you want a different sword, you should try to win these tests. The winner will get a reward of their choice.”

“What?!” Seraphina exclaimed, ignoring the possibility of a reward, but instead focusing on the fact that she had to run. “But don’t we need to warm up or something first? We just got up!”

“Well, I’m going to be timing you, so you can warm up _after_ I start the time. We need to save as much time as possible, since you guys aren’t exactly the most efficient people I’ve known,” Yena said. “Put on these uniforms, and get outside.”

Seraphina made a long groaning noise at the prospect of running laps.

“So we’re just running?” Calypso asked.

“Yes, and I’m timing you. Now hurry up,” Yena said, tossing the uniforms at the girls.

“Okay, easy.” Calypso caught the clothes. “Let’s go.”

“How big is this field?” Seraphina exclaimed. “You never told us that it’d be a KILOMETER long in perimeter!”

“Well, I never told you that it _wasn’t_ going to be _,_ either,” Yena replied cheerfully. “Alright, wait at the starting line for me to say go!”

After a moment’s pause for the girls to line up at the start line, Yena called, “READY? ONE, TWO, GO!” Instantly, Calypso dashed off, beginning the race and leaving Seraphina and Juniper in the dust. Seraphina and Juniper took a few steps, before pausing and thinking about what Yena had said.

“Wait, you were supposed to count to three!” Seraphina said, dumbfounded.

“Um, no,” Yena said. “Stop assuming things!”

“But then that’s not fair! Calypso was given a head start!” Juniper complained. At that moment, Calypso ran past the two girls, already done a lap of the run.

“Look, Calypso already finished a lap because she started on time. Although that’s probably not true and it’s actually due to her enhanced abilities,” Yena added as an afterthought. “Anyways, the important thing is, I’m timing you guys, and you’re going to fail this test if you don’t start soon, statistically speaking, so what are you still doing here?”

“But Calypso started first,” Seraphina protested. “It’s not fair.”

“She didn’t get a head start,” Yena said. “She just started when I said go. Which you two should have done. Now GO.”

“But—” Juniper was cut off as Calypso sprinted by again, leaving dust in her wake once again.

“Seriously,” Yena sighed. “It’s been almost two minutes, and you’re still whining? You’re going to fail at this rate.”

“I DON’T CARE,” Seraphina yelled. “Why are we doing an assessment in the first place when we already started training yesterday? Aren’t we supposed to do diagnostic tests _first?_ And it’s not like you can even count to three!”

“I _can_ count to three,” Yena said calmly. “I just didn’t. I’m actually smarter than all three of you combined.”

“Are you implying that we are _dumb?_ ” Juniper demanded. Calypso raced past yet again, leaving the two girls to blink dust out of their eyes.

“At least I know how to pronounce ‘Shugo Chara’ right,” Seraphina seconded. “And you didn’t count to three. We didn’t get a proper warning!”

“You shouldn’t _need_ a warning,” Yena said. “But seriously, do you really care about counting more than this examination?”

“YES!” Juniper and Seraphina shouted in unison.

“Idiots,” Yena muttered under her breath. “I still can’t believe that you’re still dawdling here...”

“Well, maybe we wouldn’t still be here if _you had counted to three,_ ” Juniper said. Calypso then dashed past the two girls, but skidded as she stopped.

“Why are you still here?” Calypso asked. “I’m almost done.”

“Because _Yena_ is incapable of _counting to three!_ ” Seraphina replied. But by that time, Calypso had already sped away, leaving the two girls behind once again.

“Okay. I’m going to count to three, and you two are going to run the race like normal people, all right?” Yena said. “One, two, three, GO.”

But before Yena could say anything else, Calypso dashed past the finish line for the tenth time, finishing the race.

“I’m done!” Calypso exclaimed, skidding to a stop.

“Congratulations, Calypso!” Yena said while shooting Seraphina and Juniper a glare that paralleled Amber’s in malice. “Someone doesn’t care whether or not _I count to three.”_

“She finished ALREADY?” Seraphina exclaimed.

“Well, of course, since you two were standing here dawdling while she actually ran the race without complaints,” Yena said. “By the way, Calypso, you got around six minutes, which is meh for someone who has superhuman speed. But it’s fantastic compared to what those two got, which is nonexistent. All right! We’re moving on to the second part.”

“Wait, what?! But we didn’t get to run yet!” Seraphina cried. “Didn’t you just complain about our nonexistent scores?”

“I don’t need to watch you run to know that you’re going to fail,” Yena replied. “Plus, even if you started to run, you’d get six minutes or more since I’m not going to restart the timer for you. You’d better pass one of the tests, or Amber won’t be very happy...”

“I don’t care,” Calypso said, shrugging. “I’ve passed one of the tests already, and what can Amber do, anyways? Destroy my stuff? Which really only includes this stupid sword which is overweight? In fact, she can be my guest. I’d _love_ it if Amber destroyed this sword so maybe then I can get one that I can ACTUALLY USE.”

“So, the next part is going to test your skills in combat,” Yena explained, ignoring Calypso’s rant. “You’re going to go robot sparring.”

“Can we use our weapons?” Juniper asked.

Yena nodded. “You’ll get swords and stuff, but you’ll still get to use your own weapons and Sugo Charas or whatever you call it.”

“For the HUNDREDTH TIME, it’s SHUGO. _SHUGO_ CHARA,” Seraphina roared.

“We don’t give a damn,” Calypso muttered, and the others half nodded.

By the time the three girls got back to the training room, the room’s dummies had been pushed to the sides. The only things left in the middle of the room was a weapon rack containing three sparring swords and a robot which was sitting forlornly in the centre of the room.

“So, who’s first?” Yena asked. “All you have to do is fight and defeat the robot.”

“I’ll go!” Calypso declared, picking up a sparring sword in one hand and her new sword in the other. “Damn, both swords are heavy.”

“No, you’re just too used to a light sword,” Yena corrected from the back. Then she raised a remote which had a green button and a red button. “Ready?”

“Yeah,” Calypso said, dropping the sparring sword and raising her other sword into a battle stance.

Yena pressed the green button on the remote. Instantly, the robot began moving, its head turning towards Calypso. Its eyes flashed red as it raised its arm which held a sparring sword. It stood up and stomped towards Calypso.

“Let’s see what this thing can do,” Calypso said as she faced the robot clumsily. Her new sword wobbled in her hands as she tried to swing it at the robot. The robot, surprisingly swift, dodged to one side and aimed at Calypso’s side. Calypso jumped backwards, avoiding the blow by a centimeter.

“Stupid sword,” Calypso muttered. “It’s too heavy! The swords I use are supposed to be light and controllable! This feels like I’m swinging around a giant mallet!” She didn’t get to say anything else, because the robot was charging at her again. When the robot swung his sword at Calypso, she was barely able to get the sword in place to block the swing.

Calypso growled, jumping away. The robot raised its sword and charged at Calypso with its sword outstretched, probably trying to impale Calypso. Calypso tried to dart to one side, but the weight of her sword slowed her down. “Damn it!” she shouted as the robot easily swung its sword around and struck Calypso on her shoulder. She fell over, her sword tumbling out of her hands and onto the floor.

“The robot wins!” Yena announced, pressing the red button on the remote. Immediately, the robot’s eyes stopped glowing and it froze in place. Calypso got onto her feet, cursing as she picked up her sword and dragged it back to where Seraphina was.

“Stupid robot,” Calypso said.

“Let me try!” Juniper said.

“Okay,” Yena replied, raising the remote. Juniper walked in front of the robot, pulling back at her bowstring and aiming at the robot.

“I am ready,” Juniper said, her eyes narrowed. Yena nodded and pressed the green button on the remote. The robot’s eyes lit up and it instantly went back to life. Seconds later, it charged for Juniper. Juniper dodged the blow, releasing her bow. The arrow zipped through the air and hit the robot on the chest. But due to the robot’s heavy weight and steel plating, it didn’t even flinch. The arrow simply hit the robot and fell to the floor.

“Wait, how am I supposed to defeat something that’s not even alive?!” Juniper realized, dodging another blow from the robot. “Maybe I should aim for its joints—they don’t have armour...”

Juniper reached for another arrow and this time, she shot it at the robot’s left knee joint. It hit the robot’s knee, causing it to buckle. The robot fell over onto the ground, but a few moments later, its eyes flashed red and the broken joint repaired itself, and within seconds the robot was up again.

“Now this isn’t fair!” Juniper said. “It REPAIRS itself!”

The robot’s eyes flashed at Juniper, and she barely had time to dodge as the robot swung its sword at her. It grazed her arm, but she was unharmed by the sparring sword. 

She summoned her shikigami, and suddenly there were ten Junipers in the room. The robot paused, scanning all the Junipers with its glowing red eyes. Then it turned its head and faced the real Juniper.

“So I can’t kill it, it _repairs_ itself, AND it can see through my shikigami. That’s great,” Juniper muttered. She quickly pulled out another arrow and as the robot charged towards her, she shot it at the robot’s eye. However, it didn’t faze the robot as it just kept on charging at Juniper, before striking her with its sword.

“The robot wins again!” Yena declared, pressing the red button once again. The robot froze again as the glow in its eyes faded.

“Okay, first of all, that was incredibly unfair,” Juniper muttered, standing up and dusting off her clothes. “And how is this even training? Aren’t we supposed to be preparing to fight a _living being?_ I don’t think that fighting a stupid machine is going to...”

“Seraphina’s turn,” Yena said as Juniper kept on ranting.

Seraphina nervously nodded, pulling out a colourful egg. “Karin!” Cracks appeared on the egg, and her Shugo Chara popped out of it.

 _“Is this the test?”_ she asked, eyeing the robot nervously.

“Yes. I need to character transform again,” Seraphina said. In a whirl of sparkles and light, Seraphina transformed into Artistic Elegance. “Character Transformation: Artistic Elegance!” Seraphina exclaimed.

“What the hell?” Calypso stared at her. “Are you like, Sailor Moon now or something?”

“It’s a Character Transformation,” Seraphina explained with a small laugh. “My body moves automatically. I can’t really help it. I wouldn’t do it if I had a choice.”

“But did you really have to exclaim ‘Statistics at a Glance!’ afterwards?” Calypso asked, her tone teasing. “I never knew that you wanted to become a university professor—” 

“It’s ARTISTIC ELEGANCE!” Seraphina yelled. She stormed in front of the robot and flung open her sketchbook, and a bright red dragon swirled out of it in a cloud of sparkles.

“I’m ready,” Seraphina called, hopping onto the Doodle Dragon. Yena pressed the green button, and the robot instantly came to life.

The Doodle Dragon growled as the robot fixed its glowing red eyes on Seraphina. It stomped towards her with its sword outstretched. The Doodle Dragon snarled at the robot as it flapped its wings and lifted into the air. 

The robot paused, as if trying to assess the situation and calculate. Then it raised its arm and threw its sword towards the dragon. The Doodle Dragon twisted in mid air, dodging the sword by a centimeter. As the sword tumbled through the air, the Doodle Dragon roared and blasted a ball of fire towards the robot. 

The robot turned its head just in time to see the roaring blast of fire hit it on its right arm. The arm violently convulsed as it began melting. Suddenly, the arm exploded, scattering melted robot parts across the floor. The robot’s eyes flashed red as the parts began gathering and re-assembling around the place where their arm used to be.

“Quickly!” exclaimed Seraphina. “Before it can repair itself!” The Doodle Dragon swooped down, blasting a ball of fire at the robot. But this time, the robot swerved and dodged it. “Rainbow Revolution!” Seraphina called while the robot was distracted. The dragon breathed out a rainbow flame, trapping the robot in colorful fire.

“Imagery Revenge!” cried Seraphina, raising her hands in the air. Out of nowhere came hundreds of brushes and pencils, all aimed at the robot. “Doodle Dragon, set alight my tools and burn them with my blazing spirit to create! Through the power of art I will win this!”

Immediately, her dragon set her brushes on fire and they whizzed towards the robot. After being barraged by the army of flaming pencils and brushes, the robot fell over, covered in dents. Suddenly, it burst into flames and exploded.

“Seraphina wins!” exclaimed Yena. “Finally someone doesn’t fail!”

“Yay?” Seraphina asked as she and Karin separated in a puff of sparkles.

“What’s with that strange speech at the end?” questioned Juniper.

“Sorry,” replied Seraphina, shaking her head with a laugh. “It’s on instinct. I have to say it to activate the power. Dramatic, I know.”

“Okay,” interrupted Yena. “Time for the next evaluation! Just to add, Calypso and Seraphina have won in one field each. Juniper, none. Anyways, our next field of training is strategy!”

“Whoa, we’re going to do this in virtual reality?!” Calypso exclaimed, looking somewhat excited for the first time. “What game are we playing?”

“Wait, people have created workable virtual reality already?” Seraphina asked. “What time-space is this?”

“Hold on,” Juniper said, looking completely clueless. “What’s this ‘virtual reality’ thing you’re talking about? Is it the name of a demon? Will we have to fight it? ”

“No, but let me explain. Virtual means blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah

blahblahblahblahblahblah, and reality means blahblahblahblahblahblahblah,” Calypso said, leaving Yena, Juniper, and Seraphina staring at her, stunned. “So basically, what’ll happen is blahblahblahblahblah players blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah Amusphere blahblahblahblahblah VRMMORPGs. It’s quite simple, actually.”

“Wait, Vee Are En Oh Pee Jee what?!” Juniper asked, clearly confused. “What is that?”

“No, it’s VRMMORPGs!” Calypso corrected. “It means Virtual Reality Mass Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, and how you’re supposed to do this is by putting this round thing on your head, and turning it on and saying ‘Link START!’”

“Who in the world came up with that?” Seraphina interrupted. “And also, couldn’t you have virtual reality _without_ it being an MMORPG? Aren’t MMOs really expensive to make, too? So wouldn’t the game be super expensive? And people in my world have created sparks of _possible_ virtual reality, but it’s just a single player game which is immersive. Isn’t that a _lot_ less expensive than making an MMO? How rich are the people in your world?”

“How am I supposed to know?” Calypso said. “Just do what I do, since I’ve done this about a million times before!”

“So, Calypso, to answer your question, we aren’t going to play a game. It’s an environment I programmed specifically for this, like the one which Seraphina mentioned. You are going to be stuck by yourselves in three different worlds,” Yena explained. “All three worlds’ environments are identical, so there won’t be any unfairness. Your goal is to survive the longest. If you die in the environment, the program closes and you will wake up in the real world again. That will also happen if I close the program, as I’ll be controlling when you can enter and leave the program. You’ll have fifteen minutes to explore the environment and prepare yourselves. Then the monsters will go out looking for you, and you’ll need to survive the longests.”

“OKAY SURE WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR LET’S GO,” Calypso said enthusiastically, tugging Seraphina’s arm towards the door in front of them. “IT’S BEEN CENTURIES SINCE I SAW ANY TECHNOLOGY LET’S GO LET’S GO.”

“You’ve only been here for _two days_ ,” Yena sighed. “Are humans in your age really this idiotic?”

“What is a ‘technology’?” Juniper asked.

“WHO CARES,” Calypso said, dragging Seraphina and Juniper into the room.

In the room, there were three beds with three helmets, with a computer on a desk in the corner. Calypso pushed Seraphina and Juniper onto their beds, and then she hopped onto her own.

“OKAY, SO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO IS THIS!” Calypso said eagerly, putting on her helmet and directing Seraphina and Juniper.

“Um, can you sort of not shout?” Seraphina asked, mimicking what Calypso did with her helmet. “This room is sort of quiet and you’re sort of destroying our eardrums.”

“Okay, whatever. So after you do what I just did here, lie down in your beds and close your eyes and say ‘Link Start!’”

“L-Link start!” Juniper said.

Calypso stared at her for a few seconds eagerly, waiting for something to happen. 

“Huh?” she said confused after a minute had gone by. “What the heck?! Yena, your stupid helmet things aren’t working! The freaking Amusph—”

“Actually,” interrupted Yena, “these aren’t Amuspheres. This is a completely different hardware.”

“What?!” Calypso shouted. “Damn it. And you got me all worked up over some dumb helmet.”

“Okay...” said Yena, turning back to her computer. “Anyways, the way this works is you will all need to put on your helmets. Once they’re on, I will activate the program, and you will all go unconscious. Not to worry though! These are my personally developed inventions, so I will be able to monitor you through these screens here. Just to make sure everything’s okay in the program, as well as with your physical conditions.”

“Program?” questioned Juniper. “What is a pro-gram?”

“Just put on the stupid helmet,” Calypso muttered.

“All right, sheesh,” Seraphina said, annoyed at Calypso’s idiotic enthusiasm. She and Juniper put on the helmets and lay down on the beds. 

“Okay,” called Yena. “You’ll go unconscious in three... two... one!”

Juniper opened her eyes, finding herself standing in a forest. 

_Where am I?_

She began exploring the forest, and found it to be quite normal, like the forests that she often travelled through back in her own world. She recognized most of the plants, and the only strange thing was that there was no sign of any animals.

“I need to watch out for the demons,” Juniper said, recalling what Yena had said.

Remembering what she learned while surviving in her own world, she found mint leaves and used them to disguise her scent. She found a suitable place under a tree surrounded by shrubs for shelter, and even sharpened some sticks on a stone to use as makeshift weapons. 

Along the way, she noticed that she didn’t feel hungry or tired at all, and guessed that since she was inside a “technology,” her body wasn’t actually real and didn’t need to eat or drink. 

Soon, she was waiting inside her shelter, prepared with supplies and weapons and determined to last the longest.

Seraphina was ready to survive the longest, too. She had walked around until she found some fruits and berries that seemed edible, and gathered as many as her arms would allow. Now she was hidden in the back of a small dark cave, hard to spot, with the berries and fruits she was pretty sure were safe to eat, in case she got hungry. Soon, she was able to hear some strange sounds coming from outside the cave.

 _I should go check this out,_ Seraphina thought. She quietly crept up to the front of the cave and peeked out. 

She saw a monster sniffing at the ground near her cave. The monster looked boar-like, but was larger than any boar that Seraphina had seen before. Large tusks stuck out of its mouth, and its thick brown fur was messy and tangled.

It sniffed and turned to face Seraphina’s cave, looking as if it had smelled something interesting and began to shamble its way towards it. Shocked, she slid back to her hiding spot, frantically trying to find something to defeat the demon with. 

With nothing but berries in her arms, she ran to the mouth of the cave and threw a purple one at it, hoping to distract it. The monster paused as the berry bounced off its nose, and sniffed it, before picking it up in its jaws and swallowing it whole. It then resumed its approach towards Seraphina’s cave.

Terrified, Seraphina curled up in front of the back wall of her cave, hoping the monster wouldn’t see her in the darkness. As it made it to the entrance of the cave, she could she its tusks poking into the cave as its piglike nose sniffed around at its entrance. It seemed like it caught Seraphina’s scent, and slowly entered the cave with a low snort.

Then, it suddenly reared back its head and let out a loud squeal. It burst apart into slivers of light and faded away, leaving Seraphina stunned.

_What just happened?_

Seraphina paused, thinking through the possibilities. She glanced down at the berries she was still clutching in her arms. 

_Maybe the purple berries are poisonous._

She sat back down in her cave, gathering all the purple berries she could find into a pile that was decently large. She smiled to herself.

_I’m going to win this._

“I hate these shrubs! Why do they have to be in my way?” Calypso shouted, kicking at the tall shrubs that practically covered her entire path. “Just some stupid obstacles Yena created to slow me down.”

Calypso had spent the first ten minutes of her time in the world by exploring the forest, eager to find the monsters and kill them before they could kill her, but she couldn’t find any signs of life at all, let alone monsters. She didn’t care about food, since she knew the test probably wouldn’t go on for that long anyways, so instead she gathered some rocks she could use to throw at monsters in case they came at her.

Then, an earsplitting roar shook the air, and Calypso turned around to see a giant monster rampaging towards her, knocking down multiple trees in the process.

“Pfft. What a clumsy monster. It’ll be easy to fight off,” Calypso said, aiming her rock at its head as it neared. “So I’m useless, huh?” she muttered, ready to prove Amber wrong.

“Okay. Even though I have these sharp sticks, I’ll still need a bow and arrow if I’ll want to fight properly,” Juniper mumbled to herself. Since her shelter was well-hidden and camouflaged, she only met a few demons. But when she killed them, she noticed how hard it was to fight properly with her makeshift weapons, so she decided to create a proper bow.

Cautiously, she wandered around the forest, taking note a small, shallow cave by a convenient cliff. She marked the position of the cave in her mind, and began to search for suitable wood for making a bow.

She passed by a red oak tree and stopped. “Red oak is perfect for a bow,” Juniper said, pleased. She searched for a branch of a decent length, and quickly returned to her shelter.

“Hopefully I have enough time to make a decent one...” she said as she began the slow and arduous task of creating a usable bow.

Meanwhile, Seraphina had crept about the forest, collecting wet moss to quench her thirst in case she may need to. She tried to find the place where she found the poisonous purple berries, but to no avail. She dodged around the monsters, somehow managing to collect two bundles of moss before a monster began to pursue her.

“Darn it. The entrance is guarded by monsters now.” Seraphina sighed, slumping against the back wall of the cave. She wanted to hurl some purple berries at them, but decided that it was too risky and to only use them for emergencies. “Now I’m stuck in this cave. I hope the monsters get uninterested and just leave.”

She then bit back a yelp as a particularly large monster shoved its head into the cave. The rest of its body was too big to fit through, and with its head stuck in the mouth of the cave, it began growling and squeezing itself further into the cave.

Only a meter away, she could see the monster’s hideous features. Red eyes glared at her, and its lips parted to show long yellow teeth. Its brown-green skin scraped against the walls of the cave and its twisted yellow horns raked the ceiling.

“Don’t panic, don’t panic, don’t panic,” Seraphina whispered to herself, but as the cave began shaking when the monster shoved itself even further in, she couldn’t hold back her cry of fear. She knew that it was virtual reality and she wasn’t actually going to die, but just the realisticness of everything was enough to make her begin to hyperventilate.

She frantically hurled her berries at its face, but it didn’t even seem to notice them, its eyes fixed on Seraphina.

When she ran out of berries, she pressed herself against the back wall of the cave as much as she could, unable to think of anything else that might save her. She closed her eyes and covered her ears, preparing to be torn apart by the slowly approaching monster.

Then, suddenly, the wall behind her gave way, and she fell backwards onto the ground. With a gasp, she opened her eyes and glanced around. There seemed to be some sort of tunnel behind her, and her pressing against the back wall of her cave actually caused it to crumble apart.

She tried to see to the end of the tunnel, but it was too dark to see anything. She could feel a light breeze though, which probably meant that it lead to somewhere outside. She looked back at the snarling monster in front of her, which was still trying to thrust itself further into the cave.

“Maybe... Maybe there’s a way out of this,” Seraphina gasped.

The monster roared in fury as the rock collided with its neck, before snarling and lunging at Calypso.

“Hmm, you don’t like rocks, I see.” Calypso smirked as she dodged its clumsy attack, before grabbing a large rock and slamming it down on its head. The monster howled in agony once again and burst apart into shards of light.

“ _Now_ who’s the useless one?” Calypso said. 

Another roar caused her to whip around to see a blue serpent-like monster snaking towards her. She hurled her leftover rocks at it, but it harmlessly bounced off its scales. She barely managed to dodge it as the monster sprang at her, when she saw a horde of monsters behind it.

_Uh oh._

Calypso whipped around and bolted away, knowing that she would have no chance of surviving a battle like that. As the monsters pursued her, she frantically glanced around, and spotted a large tree. She quickly grabbed a low branch swung herself up onto it, and, hurriedly, climbed higher.

She heard hisses of frustration as the monster began clambering over each other in attempts to climb it. As Calypso saw the blue serpent-like monster from before slither up the tree, she looked around and ripped off a long branch. With a fierce jab, she stabbed it in the eye, smirking as it screeched and fell back.

“Idiot,” she said triumphantly, watching it burst into light.

Then, she gasped as a violent shake almost threw her off the tree. She clung onto the trunk of the tree and looked down, to see the monsters below slamming themselves against the tree.

“Are they even smart enough to do that?” she muttered, but still tightened her grip on the trunk. She knew that she wouldn’t last for too long if she continued holding onto the tree, which was shaking so hard now that it seemed like it was rocking in the air.

She noticed that there was another tall tree nearby, and quickly decided to jump off her current tree and hopefully land on the one beside her. 

But the moment she let go of her grip on her tree, she was flung off her branch. The world turned into a blur of colours as she plummeted to the ground and into the horde of ravenous monsters below.

As Seraphina crawled down the dark, narrow tunnel, her heart started beating faster and faster. The path increasingly widened, and she could see a dot of light at the end.

 _I’ve finally made it outside._ Seraphina took a deep breath as the beam of light got wider and wider. When the tunnel opened up, a flood of light blinded her. As she blinked away the brightness, she saw that she had made it outside. 

But her moment of triumph was abruptly crushed by a loud stomp. She froze as she saw from between the trees an enormous monster approaching her. 

Horns spiralled out from its head and it had thick armour plating. Its spiked tail lashed from side to side, leaving gashes in nearby trees. Despite how bulky it looked, it was actually quite fast as it charged towards her, the ground quaking from its footsteps.

Seraphina was petrified with terror as it let out a low roar and bared its giant fangs at her. She tried to escape by crawling back into the tunnel that she came out of, but the monster had already lunged at her, slamming its heavy claws onto her and shattering her body into fragments of light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Originally written:_ ** _August 2014._
> 
> the sheer chaos of this whole thing is making me lose brain cells
> 
> I'm genuinely wondering how we came up with these random activities when we wrote this. Like how did we make the jump from normal track race to... virtual reality demon-slaying? LMAO


	6. The Tiebreaker

Juniper sat in her shelter, a bit bored. Demons lunged at her from left and right, but she still found the test almost tedious. Her life was filled with being attacked by demons every day, so she could sense an approaching demon long before she could see it. The fact that she made a bow made it even easier, since she was trained in killing demons using the bow and arrow. Even if her body inside the “technology” didn’t contain any spiritual powers, she found out that most demons perished after being hit with just one shot in the head.

_ When is this going to be over?  _ Juniper yawned as she sent one of her arrows flying towards an oncoming demon. It screeched as it hit its eye, before it vanished into fragments of light.

Then, the landscape around suddenly her flashed white, before it seemed to fade away. Juniper opened her eyes on the bed, blinking. She saw Calypso and Seraphina sitting on their own beds beside her, and Yena standing beside them.

“That was so unfair!” Calypso was yelling. “You can’t make the monsters seem dumb one second and then make them smart the next! Your game sucks!”

“It was your fault for making such a racket in the first place,” Yena replied with a sigh, like she had gone over this conversation multiple times already. “Maybe if you had actually  _ used  _ common sense, although I’m pretty sure by now that you don’t have any, and  _ didn’t  _ provoke and attract the monsters, you would have survived longer.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not my fault the monsters come in groups of fifty thousand,” Calypso retorted. “And maybe I also would have survived longer if your stupid game wasn’t rigged!”

“Oh Juniper, you’ve logged out?” Yena said, turning to Juniper and ignoring Calypso very obviously on purpose. “Congratulations, you’ve passed the test.” Yena glanced at all three girls. “Well, that means that each of you have passed one segment of the evaluation. So, for a bit of fun, why don’t we have a tiebreaker?”

“ANOTHER test?” Seraphina exclaimed, before dramatically flopping down on her bed. “I’m going to be dead by the end of the day.”

“Don’t worry, it’s just for fun,” Yena said. “You’ll just be competing in an average military-styled training course. Nothing that large.”

“NOTHING?” Seraphina lifted her head. “Did you just call a  _ military  _ course NOTHING?”

“There really isn’t anything to it. Just think of it as an obstacle course. Some maze running, and ice field, a climbing wall, and some hurdles along a track,” Yena shrugged.

“It probably won’t be any harder than the hurdles at school, anyways,” Calypso said to Seraphina.

“You guys have hurdles at your school year-round?” Seraphina asked. “We only practice that during track and field season, and even then, we only do that once.”

“They installed them to our school field kind of recently.” Calypso shrugged. “They were like ‘You lazy kids spend too much time playing your virtual reality games’ or something. Nobody actually uses them though.”

“It’s fine, Seraphina,” Juniper said. “It shouldn’t be dangerous, at least.”

“Thanks,” Seraphina mumbled.

“Of course, we will be timing you so that we can determine a winner,” Yena continued. “Just FYI, too, there will be a couple of things set to slow you down. The hurdles may or may not be set on a 1.5 kilometer track. And the climbing wall and the maze may or may not be filled with booby traps. So don’t die or anything!”

“Can we use weapons or Shugo Chara?” Seraphina asked.

“No, you can’t use weapons or... Shu-go Chara.” Yena said.

“Finally someone gets it right!” Seraphina exhaled, forgetting her nervousness for a couple of seconds. She was immediately muffled by Yena, though, who continued to talk.

“And the fastest time will win,” Yena said over Seraphina.

“What happens if someone gets hurt?” Juniper asked.

“Just don’t get hurt,” Yena replied. “All right, meet me in the backyard, where the course is located. At the starting line, you’ll see three backpacks. These backpacks contain a water bottle and a first aid kit to help you during the race. You may form alliances, but this  _ is _ an individual activity.”

“Why did she prepare us with a  _ first aid kit?”  _ Seraphina asked nervously as she, Juniper, and Calypso made their way to the backyard. “Unless they expect us to  _ need  _ them, which I really hope they don’t.”

“Maybe they have some hidden uses?” Juniper said, trying to reassure Seraphina. “Maybe they’ll want us to use the bandages as a rope. Or something.”

Calypso made an amused snort. “If it’s like that, then I’ll use the band-aids to tape Amber’s mouth shut.”

After they reached the side of the mansion, they each picked up their backpacks and lined up along the starting line. As the course was mostly flat, Juniper was able to see most of what was ahead of them. But the first course was the hurdles, and according to Yena, it was 1.5 kilometres long. “Try to remember to count to three this time,” Seraphina said to Yena. 

“Yeah, yeah. I will,” Yena answered, rolling her eyes. “Ready? Three, two, one, go!”

The three girls dashed forward at the same time, but it was easy to tell that Calypso was gaining the lead as she quickly pulled ahead of Juniper and Seraphina.

Juniper could see that the first hurdle barely stopped Calypso as she easily sprang over it and continued the run. The first hurdle allowed Juniper to get a couple metres ahead of Seraphina though, as Seraphina stumbled a bit on the hurdle.

Behind her, she saw that Seraphina put on a burst of speed, probably to make up for the lost time on the hurdle. Luckily, as Juniper put on her own burst of speed, she seemed to have outrun Seraphina, because soon, she couldn’t see Seraphina in her field of vision.

Juniper could barely see Calypso ahead of her, and she mentally sighed, wondering if she’d have a chance of beating someone so superhuman.

Then, Juniper heard a yelp. She looked back, and saw Seraphina fallen on the ground in front of a hurdle. She briefly wondered whether or not she should give up on the race to see what was wrong, but after looking at Calypso, who was now just a dot in the distance, she turned around and jogged to Seraphina.

“Are you okay? What happened?” she asked, kneeling beside Seraphina.

“I tripped on the hurdle and somehow managed to sprain my ankle,” Seraphina replied, wincing as she lightly touched her right ankle.

Juniper opened up her first aid kit. Although she had no idea what half of the items in it were for, she found a small squishy pack that was cold to the touch, and gently put it on Seraphina’s ankle.

“Why is there a needle in there? And a scalpel? Wait, is that an  _ amputation knife? _ ” Seraphina exclaimed as she looked through the contents of Juniper’s opened kit. “Okay, I’m kind of scared now.”

“Oh, I know what this is for!” Juniper said happily, picking up the long jagged blade that Seraphina called an amputation knife. “I saw it being used in a village before! There was this one time when one of the kids got hurt and—”

“I DON’T NEED TO KNOW!” Seraphina shouted, covering her ears. “Anyways, Juniper, you don’t have to stay here. I should be okay, and Calypso’s really fast, so you should go now if you want to win the race.”

“It’s fine,” Juniper replied. “And I doubt I’d win the race anyways, with how fast she is.”

“Yeah, how does she do that?” Seraphina asked. “It’s crazy.”

“Here.” Juniper bent down and looped Seraphina’s left arm around her neck, before standing up and supporting her. “I’ll help you. We’ll have to finish the race eventually, right?”

“Thanks,” Seraphina said.

They slowly limped through the hurdle track, and as they finally made it past the final hurdle, they could see what was in front of them. A large puddle of mud, followed by a deep pool. Beyond that, the ground glittered with ice for what looked like half a kilometer until the edge of the maze.

By looking ahead, they could both see that Calypso had gotten past the mud puddle and was hauling herself out of the pond.

“Well, I guess we should start with this mud puddle, right?” Seraphina asked.

“Sure,” Juniper said, wading into the giant puddle. 

“Gosh, this is so gross,” Seraphina said as the mud made squelching noises as they walked through it.

“I’m glad that I am accustomed to things like this,” Juniper said happily. “My clothing often gets drenched with blood when I fight demons.”

“That’s not a good thing!” Seraphina shouted.

When they got through the mud and began swimming through the pond, Seraphina suddenly said, “I think I’ll be okay now. You should go.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Seraphina replied. “Look, Calypso looks like she’s having trouble with the ice. If you go now, you might be able to beat her!”

“All right, I’m going to go on then. Be careful,” Juniper said, putting on a burst of speed in her swimming and leaving Seraphina behind.

“This is so stupid!” Calypso shouted, slipping on the ice floor for the umpteenth time. The rest of the course was tiring, but this ice floor was downright  _ exhausting.  _ The fact that her entire body was soaked, including her shoes, from the pond earlier made crossing the ice without slipping the most difficult thing in the world.

When she fell once, it was so slippery that it took  _ forever  _ for her to pick herself up again. It was made even more stressful by the fact that she was on a time limit and could already see Juniper and Seraphina swimming through the pond.

“Damn it!” she cursed when she saw Juniper pull herself out of the pond. She tried to sprint across the ice, but ended up slipping and painfully landing on her side. With a growl she tried to push herself up. She looked back and saw Juniper back up a few steps.

_ What’s she doing...?  _

Juniper landed onto the ice with a running start, smoothly gliding over it on her feet. Calypso stared, incredulous, as Juniper effortlessly slid across the entire ice field in a manner of seconds.

“What the hell?!” Calypso shouted, almost about ready to just give up on the race. She spent a couple of minutes trying to stand back on up on the ice, before something suddenly bowled into her. She was propelled towards the maze, though, and was actually hit with so much force that because of it, she actually finally got past the ice field and was at the edge of the maze. 

She looked back as she heard a groan, and saw Seraphina on the ground behind her.

“Seraphina?” she said. “What are you doing here?”

“Just trying to not slip on the ice and die,” Seraphina muttered, rubbing her shoulder. “Ow... that was a lot more painful than I expected.”

“Wait, how did you catch up to me so quickly?”

“Well, you  _ were  _ having a lot of of trouble with the ice,” Seraphina replied, standing up. She was leaning heavily on her left foot, so she probably injured her right foot during the race. “Hey, is it okay if we go into the maze together? I don’t think I could avoid the traps on my own.” She paused. “Wait, probably not. Last time you snorted at how stupid the idea was and dashed off by yourself.”

“Erm,” Calypso said, remembering her incident with the quicksand with a bit too much clarity. “Right. Let’s just do this together. You can lead the way.” 

Seraphina looked at Calypso strangely for a moment, but then shrugged slightly. Calypso followed her into the maze, and immediately, five different paths greeted them.

Calypso almost crashed into Seraphina’s back as she suddenly stopped in her tracks.

“Wait, what are you doing?” Calypso asked, prodding Seraphina in the arm.

“My sixth sense or whatever,” Seraphina said with a look of concentration. She opened her eyes and paused before pointing to the middle path. “Um, I think it’s this one.”

“You don’t sound really sure,” Calypso commented.

“Well, I only just started using my sixth sense, so what I feel and stuff could just be a fabrication of my mind. And stuff,” Seraphina said. “But I’m pretty sure it’s the middle one. I just don’t want to sound confident and then find out that I’m wrong.”

Calypso shrugged and strided into the middle path, Seraphina following her. But then, Calypso tripped over what looked like a small rock. Instantly, a net lunged out from the ceiling to scoop up Calypso, leaving her swaying in the air.

Seraphina stopped in her path, watching Calypso sway slightly in the air. “Um, I’ll try to get you out of there,” she said reassuringly, though it didn’t turn out as very reassuring.

“Maybe I can rip it apart,” Calypso said. She tried to stretch the net in order to break it apart, but it didn’t tear a bit. “Damn it, it’s really sturdy!”

“Maybe we can use something to cut it?” Seraphina suggested. She looked around, but there were no sharp rocks or sticks in sight. “I can’t find anything. If only I had my Doodle Dragon; he could probably just bite the net open.”

“Oh! I have a tooth!” Calypso said, her eyes lighting up.

“What are you talking about?” Seraphina asked, still continuing her hopeless search. “Of course you have a tooth.”

“No, stupid, I mean this necklace!” Calypso said, pulling out her shark tooth necklace. “I usually have this for reasons like this!”

“Does that mean that you expect yourself to be in situations where you’re stuck in a net or something...?” Seraphina mumbled. “I mean, if it was Juniper, it might make a bit more sense since she only uses bow and arrows. But will a shark tooth really help you if you’re surrounded by people with guns?”

“Shut up,” Calypso said, stabbing the tooth into the net. After a couple of tries, Calypso was able to cause the rope to fray, and she was able to break through the net.

“Let’s keep going,” Calypso said, landing on the ground.

Compared to the hedge maze, this maze was a lot smaller and the traps were a lot more tame. The only traps they encountered were falling nets and concealed pits, which Calypso easily thwarted. 

Seraphina’s sixth sense seemed to have become a bit stronger, as only after about five minutes, Seraphina and Calypso were able to get out of the maze with no quicksand incidents (fortunately).

In front of them loomed a giant climbing wall that looked like a steep cliff. Three ropes dangled from it, and Calypso could see that Juniper was already climbing on one of them.

“We should split up here,” Calypso suggested.

“Right.” Seraphina shrugged. “I don’t really mind, since I won’t win anyways.”

Calypso nodded, and dashed ahead to the climbing wall ahead of them. She looked up, and saw that it looked like Juniper was having a hard time with her slippery rope, and she kept on slipping downwards. 

“Yessss,” Calypso whispered. “I can make it.” She took a running start and jumping as high as she could onto the rope. She was able to quickly gain on Juniper, until they were equal.

“Why are these ropes slippery?” Juniper muttered, sliding down until she was below Calypso.

“You were probably unlucky and chose a bad rope,” Seraphina called from below, somehow able to hear Juniper and Calypso’s conversation. 

Calypso saw that she was already almost at the top, and paused, glancing back at the two other girls. Juniper was struggling to gain any height as she kept on slipping down her rope. Seraphina was climbing the wall too, but really slowly since she only had one foot to use.

Then Calypso climbed the last metre to the finish, finding Yena sitting at the top of the wall. A couple minutes later, both Seraphina and Juniper arrived, with Seraphina helping Juniper to prevent her from slipping down the rope again.

“Done,” Calypso said to Yena triumphantly. 

“Okay. Congratulations,” Yena said. “I’m actually a bit surprised you managed to come out first, considering how much trouble you had with the ice—”

“Shut up,” Calypso muttered. “What’s important is that won this race, so now I can have anything I want now, right?”

“Well, not  _ anything,”  _ Yena said. “It’s more like you tell us what you want, and firstly, Amber and I have to approve of it, of course. After we see if it’s reasonable, and if it is, we check if it’s within our powers. And since  _ you’re  _ the one requesting it, we’ll have to make you promise not to abuse it in any way. After all the requirements are met, we’ll do it for you.”

“You guys make a big deal out of everything.” Calypso rolled her eyes. “It’s not like I’m making a new law or something. Seesh.”

“Well, if you want, we could always just  _ not  _ give you anything,” Yena said with a shrug.

“Okay, okay, fine!” Calypso said. “Make me a new sword. And make sure it’s not one of your stupid overweight ones, okay?”

“So you want us to make it super light,” Yena said, rolling her eyes. “Or do you mean that we should move the point of balance closer to the handle? Because the sword I gave you was a replica of a Norse sword, which should have been similar to what you had in your game.”

“Um, sure. I don’t know,” Calypso said. “As long as it looks good, I guess.”

She went on to describe the sword she wanted, and Yena went to forge it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Originally written:_ ** _August 2014._


	7. Bonjour L’hiver

“Oh yeah, here’s your sword, Calypso.” Amber snapped, causing a sheathed sword to magically appear in front of Calypso. Calypso eagerly grabbed it, whipping out the sword inside. Unlike her previous silver and blue longsword, her new sword gleamed with a golden blade that faded into green near the edge, and a golden handle with a green guard and pommel. 

“Why is it still heavy?” she complained, waving it around. 

“Unlike your previous sword, this sword is actually _real._ This is actually a fairly light sword.” Amber sighed. “If even _this_ is too heavy for you, then seriously, how light was your fake one?” 

She narrowed her eyes as Calypso began testing it on some of the dummies in the training room. “ALSO. This morning I just bought a _very_ expensive vase. It’s antique and one-of-a-kind, so if I see ANY of you doing ANYTHING to it, I’ll do worse than just destroy your belongings.”

Calypso froze in the middle of swinging her sword, turning to Amber with widened eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Amber said.

“N-Nothing,” Calypso muttered, sliding her sword back into its bronze-coloured sheath. “Uh, I guess this sword is okay. It’s still a bit heavy.”

“Back on topic,” Amber said, turning to Juniper and Seraphina. “I’ve decided that we’ll be doing some sparring as a warm-up for today’s training.”

“But I sprained my ankle from yesterday’s race thing!” Seraphina whined.

“You’ll get worse injuries if you don’t train. And I already soothed the pain, so it won’t bother you that much during training,” Amber replied. She turned to glance at Calypso and Juniper. “And I don’t want to hear complaints from you two, either, since only one of you guys actually passed the robot sparring part.”

“It wasn’t my fault that your stupid swords were too heavy,” Calypso protested. “And Seraphina didn’t actually fight the robot! She just burned it with her dragon and some sketchy rainbow breath!”

“Hey!” Seraphina said. “Rainbow Revolution isn’t sketchy! If anything here was sketchy, it would be your sketchy sword made out of data!”

“Guys, isn’t Yena a bit late?” Juniper interjected.

“Oh, but she’s never late! She’s always _perfectly perfect,_ like Amber,” Calypso said with a sneer.

“Then would you like this perfectly perfect person to destroy your new sword?” Amber said sweetly. “ _Perfectly?”_ Calypso quickly closed her mouth.

“Wait, isn’t Yena like, half an hour late by now?” Seraphina said.

“I’ll stand in for her then,” Amber said.

“That’s not the point,” Seraphina said. “Where is she? What if something happened to her?”

“Fine,” Amber sighed. “I’ll go find her.” With a swirl of dust, she vanished, leaving the three girls behind.

“This sucks,” Calypso sighed, sitting on the bench. “I was really excited to try out my new sword too...”

“I’m sure Amber will find her soon,” Seraphina said. “Yena’s probably just cleaning up or doing some work.”

“I hope so,” Juniper said.

However, after fifteen minutes of waiting, there were no signs of either Amber or Yena. “What the hell?” Calypso shouted. “Where the heck are they? I want to go sparring already!”

“Let’s go look for them!” Seraphina suggested, standing up.

“Sure,” Juniper said. “We have nothing better to do.”

“When I find Amber, _I’m_ going to spar with her,” Calypso declared, unsheathing her sword and standing up. “I’ll kick her stupid butt for making us wait so long.”

“Then let’s go,” Seraphina said with a giggle.

“Well,” Juniper said. “This is harder than I thought.”

“Yeah,” Seraphina agreed. “Especially since we’re probably in a ten-story mansion.”

“I won’t be surprised if this is another one of their stupid tests,” Calypso muttered, easily able to imagine Yena and Amber hiding somewhere and watching them secretly. “It’s all they ever care about.”

Even though all they did was quickly glance through different rooms, the sheer amount of rooms took an enormous amount of time to search through completely. An hour had gone by, and they had just finished looking through the first floor.

“This is taking forever. We’ll never find them,” Juniper said with an exasperated sigh. 

They tried to search through the second floor, but as they painfully checked each and every room out of the five billion rooms that existed on this floor, Calypso felt her frustration growing with each passing minute.

“I give up! I don’t care where they are! What a waste of four hours!” Calypso finally shouted. She slammed shut the door of the room she was checking, stormed down the stairs and into the training hall.

Inside the training hall stood Yena and Amber.

“You idiots! We’ve been looking for you everywhere! Where were you guys?!” Calypso shouted, making sure that her annoyance was obvious in her voice. She walked into the room, but froze as she saw them.

They were just standing in the middle of the training room, staring at the ceiling. Their eyes were blank, and didn’t react at all when Calypso waved a hand over their faces.

“Hello? Earth to Amber?” she said.

“Jewel,” Amber replied emotionlessly.

“Um. Jewel to you too,” Calypso said, a bit disturbed by Amber’s strange behavior. 

“Calypso!” Seraphina’s voice echoed from the second floor. “You can’t just ditch us like this! We still have to find Amber and Yena!”

“Well, I think I have,” Calypso shouted back. “Come to the training room.”

“Amber! Yena!” Seraphina shouted as she and Juniper burst into the training room. Both Amber and Yena blankly turned to stare at Seraphina.

“Jewel,” Yena said.

“Something’s wrong with them,” Calypso said, motioning for them to come over. “They’re like possessed or something.”

“Maybe by a demon?” Juniper noted, watching as Amber and Yena furiously began mumbling “Jewel” under their breaths. “I’ve never dealt with a demon possessing someone myself, but I’ve heard stories about them. I _should_ be able to purify them.”

“Well, you’d better do it soon or I’m calling the exorcist,” Calypso said. “They’ve been chanting ‘Jewel’ repeatedly for the past minute like they’re trying to summon the Devil or something.”

“What are you guys doing?” Seraphina said, cradling Amber’s wrist in her hand. “We have to help them!”

“Well, do you know what’s wrong with them?” Calypso retorted.

“I’m not sure, but maybe their Heart’s Eggs became X-Eggs?” Seraphina said as she went on to check Amber’s pulse.

“Their what became what now?” Calypso said.

“It’s what happens to Heart’s Eggs when their owners give up on their dreams, so they get taken over by negative emotions, which causes them to—” Seraphina stopped, probably catching Calypso’s baffled expression. “Okay nevermind. Basically, people with X-Eggs usually look like this. Like, all blank and emotionless.”

“Um, sure,” Calypso said, not knowing what in the world she was talking about. “You go try out your, uh, Sugo Heart Egg thing.”

A moment passed, and Seraphina still didn’t move.

“Uh, Seraphina?” Juniper said when Seraphina didn’t reply.

“Juniper, is being possessed contagious?” Calypso asked, waving a hand in front of Seraphina’s face.

“Probably,” Juniper said, giving Seraphina a worried glance.

“Jewel,” Seraphina said.

“What do we do? I’m sensing a demonic aura here, but it’s very faint. I think they’re being possessed by parasites,” Juniper said anxiously. “I’ve heard of parasites possessing people, but I’ve never actually dealt with it. I don’t know how to kill them without killing the host.”

“Stop fretting,” Calypso said. “They’ll go back to normal, eventually. Probably. Besides, all we need to do is find the parasites or whatever and kill them, don’t we?”

“It’s harder than it sounds,” Juniper said. “I don’t even think the parasites are visible.”

“How about we just attack them, and the parasites might get scared and detach themselves from them?” Calypso suggested, eagerly gripping her new sword’s handle.

“I don’t think the parasites will get scared off that easily. And you might hurt them.”

“Oh, and it is _so_ easy to hurt _THE GREAT AMBER,”_ Calypso scoffed. “Fine. Let’s just find the parasites first.”

Juniper nodded, but when the two girls turned back to face the possessed three, their eyes landed on empty air.

“How does that happen?” Calypso said. “They were just here, like, literally three minutes ago!”

“Our only hope is to search for them, I suppose,” Juniper said.

Calypso let out a sigh. “Joy.”

“Let’s split up,” Juniper suggested. “I’ll take half of this floor and you take the other half, and we’ll keep on moving up the floors like that one by one. It’ll save us time, and we’ll be able to cover more area that way. Let’s meet back here in an hour.” Without waiting for a reply, Juniper exited the training room.

“This is hopeless,” Calypso muttered.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Calypso nor Juniper, Amber, Yena, and Seraphina had locked themselves in the washroom on the first floor. 

Seraphina dropped a roll of toothpaste into the toilet and flushed it. Yena then did the same with the towel. Amber used her magic to break apart the bathtub into pieces small enough to flush.

“Flush. More,” Amber ordered. “Fun.”

“Yes,” Seraphina and Yena said, dropping a piece of the bathtub into the toilet. This caused the three to get splashed by toilet water, but they were all too mesmerized by the toilet as they silently watched the bathtub piece swirl down the hole.

“OH MY GOD THIS IS SO FREAKING IDIOTIC!” Calypso yelled as she walked down the empty halls. 

Calypso kicked a flowerpot over with frustration, and it instantly shattered from the impact. Wet soil spilled on her foot, staining her shoes and pants. She could feel the muddy water from the soil soaking into her socks.

“This day couldn’t be better,” Calypso hissed. “And now I need to find a sink in this stupid mansion to wash my socks with.”

Calypso stomped to the bathroom, not caring about the muddy footprints she was leaving on the carpet, although she knew that Amber would be furious.

 _That’s_ if _I find her somewhere in this dumb mansion,_ Calypso muttered in her head.

She slammed open the bathroom door and threw off her shoes, before she noticed that the sink handles were gone. Looking around, she realized that the entire bathroom was nearly empty, and even the bathtub had somehow been ripped out of the wall. 

She froze as she realized that there were three figures huddled in the back corner of the bathroom. She took a step towards them, but then they all instantly pounced at her, pinning her down and sweeping her into darkness.

Meanwhile, Juniper was busy searching for Yena, Amber and Seraphina, AND Calypso.

“Where is she?” Juniper muttered angrily. “I told her to meet me back in the training room in an hour and it’s already been one and a half!”

As if her words had summoned her, the bathroom down the hall in front of her opened, and Calypso came walking out.

“Calypso! Where were you?” Juniper said, walking over to her. “I know you’re frustrated, but—”

She paused as she saw Seraphina step into view from behind Calypso, followed by Amber and Yena.

“Oh no,” Juniper groaned. “Did Calypso get possessed as well?”

She instinctively readied her bow and reached for an arrow as Amber started at her with her eerie blank eyes, before slowly pointing at her. Instantly, Yena, Calypso, and Seraphina burst forward. Yena morphed into a screeching gray dragon while Calypso whipped out her sword.

 _“Jewel,”_ Amber hissed.

“S-Stay away!” Juniper yelped. She knew she couldn’t fight back, in the fear of hurting one of them, so the only thing she could do was flee as fast as her body would allow. She made random turns in the mansion, frantically sending out shikigami to act as decoys for her.

When she couldn’t hear the sounds of footsteps chasing her anymore, she slowed down and ran into the nearest room she could find.

“That was creepy,” Juniper panted. “I thought I was going to die.”

In the room, there was a strange, flat, glass screen hung onto the wall. As Juniper walked closer, she noticed there was a small round button on the right hand side. It had a strange symbol on it: a circle with a line at the top cutting to the center. Without thinking, Juniper pressed it with her finger.

“Hmm... nothing happened. I thought it woul—” Before she could finish her sentence, a bright light flashed on the metal screen, causing Juniper to jump back in alarm.

“What was that?!” Juniper shrieked. As she glanced at the screen again, there was a little girl wearing a purple backpack on it. Standing beside her was a short gray monkey wearing red shoes.

“ _Hola, amigo!”_ the girl said, waving and looking at Juniper straight into the eye.

“AH!” Juniper screamed. alarmed. She almost shot an arrow into the girl’s face, before realizing that she was fake.

“How is that possible?” Juniper mumbled as she continued watching her. “Ew! The girl’s head is deformed! It looks like a lemon!”

On the screen of the strange contraption, there was a small sign. It read: _Dora the Explorer._

“Hmm... interesting. Might as well watch this strange performance,” Juniper said. Thirty minutes later, the performance ended and the contraption shut off.

“How stupid is that ‘Dora’ person?” Juniper exclaimed. “And why are they saying ‘Swiper no swiping?’ That’s like saying ‘Demons, no killing!’” She glanced at the black screen of the contraption. “I think Amber told me about this contraption once. I think it is called a ‘television,’” Juniper said in awe. She forgot exactly how to pronounce it, but she was sure “tee-leh-vee-see-own” was pretty close.

She heard a flurry of footsteps from outside the room, and smacked herself on the head, realizing that she had wasted thirty minutes watching Dora instead of thinking of a way to get rid of the parasites.

Slowly, she crept out of the room, glancing around. Even though she had heard footsteps outside, she couldn’t find anyone. She looked around for a few minutes, before she realized that one of the bathrooms were locked, with suspicious flushing sounds coming from behind the door.

“A-Amber?” Juniper said, knocking on the door.

“Silence,” a voice replied from inside the bathroom. “Flush. Important. More important than jewel.”

“Amber! Open the door!” Juniper said, knocking even harder. She was replied with the sound of a splash and a loud flush. She tried to open the door, but it was locked.

“What do I do?” Juniper sighed. “I can’t get rid of the parasites if they’re going to lock themselves into the bathroom like that...”

She glanced around, her gaze sweeping past an elegant glass statue of a lady standing by a nearby door. An idea slipped into her mind, and she shook her head.

“It’s just like in that ‘Dora’ show. If I do something mean, then I’ll hurt Amber’s feelings!” Juniper told herself. But as the flushing of the toilet somehow seemed to grow louder, she couldn’t fight her concern for Amber and the others.

She walked over to the statue, picked it up, and after a deep breath, smashed it against the wall. She winced as a harsh shattering rang from it and the lady’s head fell off. She then dropped the remnants of the statue and hid in the room that the statue was beside, nervously anticipating the arrival of a furious Amber.

Seconds, then minutes, passed, and the only thing Juniper could hear was the rumble of items being flushed down the toilet.

“I guess it didn’t work... She’s possessed, after all,” Juniper said as she stepped out of the room she was hiding in. She groaned. “What should I do now?” She helplessly paced in front of the locked bathroom door, before an idea struck her head.

“Oh, I know!” Juniper said. “I should just ‘Goo-gull’ it! Seraphina said that it has the answer to everything!”

She wasn’t sure how reliable this ‘Goo-gull’ thing was, but it was the best option she had besides breaking down the bathroom door, which would probably cause her to be attacked by all four possessed girls. She ran back into the room filled with the contraptions. She turned on the television from before, hoping to find out where the Goo-gull was, but paused, noticing that a new episode of Dora was playing on the screen.

“Hmm... maybe I can learn more about the parasites from this ‘Dora’ person,” Juniper mused. “She seems fairly knowledgeable.” 

After another half hour of watching Dora, Juniper was still unsure of how to get rid of the parasites and had only learned that the strange shoes the monkey was wearing were called boots.

She turned off the television and shook her head. “I have to stay focused.” She glanced around the room, taking in all the strange contraptions that filled the shelves around her, before she saw something peculiar on the desk near her. It looked like a piece of paper folded in half widthwise, with a black glass sheet on one half of it, like a television.

“It’s a miniature television!” Juniper gasped, running over to it. She picked it up and examined it, noticing a picture of an apple on the back of it. 

“WHO BIT THE APPLE?” Juniper boomed as she saw a bite mark in the apple. “They ruined this miniature television!”

When Juniper pressed a little button on the miniature television, the screen instantly lit up. It had several icons on the bottom with an elaborate background behind them.

“Right. Miniature televisions have a ‘mouse’ to control the little triangle on the glass sheet. Then I can click something to get rid of the parasites!” Juniper beamed. She clicked on something that looked like a blue circle with a red and white stick in the middle of it. 

A white page suddenly appeared, with a bar on top. She clicked on the bar, and randomly pressed her fingers on the keyboard. Then she pressed “enter.” It took her to a place on the bar that said “Bbuaonju Liver,” with words on the page saying: _Did you mean[Bonjour L’hiver](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEINdfUmxsQ&ab_channel=SylviaDuckworth)? _

“Maybe this is how I’m supposed to get rid of the parasites! Goo-gull is so smart.” She clicked on those words. There was a picture of a snowman in a small blue box with words beside it. Not knowing what to do, Juniper clicked on the picture.

Cheerful music with children laughing in the background suddenly blared from the holes of the miniature television. Juniper slammed her hands over her ears, her head painfully ringing from the horrendously cheerful music.

_“Bonjour l’hiver, et comment ça va?_

_“Je suis content, que tu sois avec moi.”_

A jolly voice sang in a language Juniper didn’t recognize, so sharp and crisp that she felt like it was shooting spears into her head. She tried to leave the room, but the pain of the music was slowing her down so much that she would have moved faster if she was crawling.

_“Bonjour l’hiver, tu te portes bien._

_“Reste un peu avec nous autres, chantons un refrain.”_

After a few torturous minutes, she finally made it out of the room, just in time to see Amber, Seraphina, Calypso and Yena collapse on the floor in front of the bathroom. She ignored the music that blasted from the contraption room as she ran over to them. 

As she neared them, she saw that above them hovered four small insect-like creatures, with round bodies and curved claws. The creatures were squirming in the air, their claws twitching as they made shriek-like chirps.

_“Ah, tes glaçons brillants, suspendus au toit._

_“Tes flocons de neige qui dansent autour de moi.”_

“The music is hurting the parasites!” Juniper realized. Although she would have much rather fought ten thousand demons barehanded, she ran back into the room and grabbed the miniature television.

The parasites let out shrieks of agony as they saw Juniper running towards them with the holes miniature television facing directly towards them. Juniper felt a spark of triumph as she saw them tremble in the air while they tried to escape her. Juniper followed after them, finding torturing the parasites more amusing than she would have thought.

_“Dans notre petit hameau.”_

After a while of running up and down the mansion chasing the parasites, they finally began shrivelling up and darkened in colour before toppling onto the ground, motionless. Juniper let out a huge sigh of relief, placing the miniature television on the ground.

“Phew!” Juniper exclaimed. “I finally got rid of them. Now I just need to check if Amber and the others are—” 

“WHO IS PLAYING THIS HORRIBLE MUSIC?” Amber’s voice suddenly boomed from somewhere in the mansion. “AND WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY STATUE?!”

“Uh oh,” Juniper muttered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Originally written:_ ** _August 2014._
> 
> AHAHAHHA PLEASE LET ME EXPLAIN THIS DKFJKSDLFJSD  
>  In grade 4, my friends and I had to memorize and perform this song during a winter concert for French class, called Bonjour L'hiver. And turns out, this song was ingrained into our memory so much that when we wrote TTOT in middle school, we ended up incorporating it? As an anti-parasite ward apparently??  
>  But as for the whole Dora the Explorer thing... I have no explanation for that. I'm sorry.


	8. No One Enters, No One Leaves

_A lone wolf’s howl rang through the indigo sky, soft and mournful._

_“Wait, what?” Chamomile’s gaze lifted from the screen of the Nintendo DS in her hands as she glanced at a boy who was around her age. He was sitting on the floor across from her, playing on his own DS. “Jade, was that a wolf?”_

_“What? Didn’t you know?” Jade looked up and tilted his head at her, the side fringes of his light brown hair slightly swaying with his head. “There are wolves everywhere in the forest.”_

_“Wolves?” Wysteria echoed, almost excitedly. She had been quietly working on her colouring book in the corner while Chamomile and Jade played their DS, and this was the first time she had joined the conversation. “There are wolves in the forest? Can we go see them?”_

_“I don’t think so,” Jade replied, although his eyes resumed being fixed on his DS. “I’m kind of surprised you guys didn’t know about them though.”_

_“How am I supposed to know?” Chamomile said. “I barely leave the mansion.”_

_“Oh, right, you have a tutor. Rich families are lucky...” From what he said, it sounded like he was envious, but Chamomile could tell that he wasn’t upset at all; he was so laid-back that she couldn’t remember the last time he seemed more than just slightly troubled._

_“I’m sort of bored of Rune Factory...” Chamomile sighed, closing her DS. “The last time I played was so long ago that I have no idea what’s happening now...”_

_“Let’s go see the wolves then,” Wysteria said. “Wolves are cute.”_

_“What? Isn’t that sort of suicidal?” Jade wondered. “It’s almost night, and I think they’re nocturnal. Didn’t the masters say to never leave the mansion alone at night or something?”_

_“Yeah, Wysteria,” Chamomile said. “Our parents make these rules for a reason.”_

_“But... But Jade goes through the forest all the time to do his butler stuff, doesn’t he?” Wysteria protested, although super softly and borderline fearfully._

_“Not at night.” Jade slightly shrugged, resuming his game. “And I’m on break right now, so I can’t really go out with you anyways. Besides, the masters will get angry if they find out that you’re sneaking off to meet wolves.”_

_“And you won’t be able to protect yourself either,” Chamomile pointed out. “You barely have any magic, so I doubt you’d even be able to teleport yourself back home.”_

_Wysteria said nothing. She simply turned back to her colouring book, silently picking up her markers. Chamomile watched as her nine-year-old sister flipped through her colouring book, stopping at the page with the picture of the Big Bad Wolf._

Amber slowly blinked awake. She blankly stared up at her ceiling, the remnants of her dream still lingering in her mind.

 _Why did I remember that...?_ Amber sighed with a pang of sorrow. _It’s already been three years._

As she slowly rolled out of bed, she glanced at the clock.

_6:30_

“I guess I’d better wake the girls up...”

That morning, the three girls had finished another bout of Amber’s training, and were separately wandering the mansion. Seraphina was strolling around the mansion’s front yard and chatting with Karin. She hadn’t done this in a while, because if she did, the other girls would most likely think that she was crazy. 

“I can’t believe that Juniper got rid of the parasites with horrible French music!” Seraphina said, laughing. “It was probably really funny to watch.”

 _“But if you were watching, you probably would have heard the bad music, too,”_ Karin said with a frown on her face.

“I don't even know how that works,” Seraphina continued, not noticing that Karin wanted to say something. “How do you kill something with _music?”_

 _“Hey, Seraphina,”_ Karin said, glancing around. _“I think there’s another Shugo Chara here...”_

Seraphina cast her gaze around her, and out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw something bright blue near the hedge maze. Karin saw it too, and was instantly flying over to inspect the other Shugo Chara.

“Wait, Karin, come back,” Seraphina called, but Karin ignored her. Seraphina began to jog in the direction that Karin was flying. “We can’t be sure that it’s—”

Seraphina’s sentence was interrupted as she tripped over a flowerbed. She gasped slightly, ready to feel the hard ground. Instead, she fell onto a pair of soft, outstretched arms.

“Oh,” and unfamiliar voice said, “are you okay?”

“AAH! GET OFF OF ME!” Seraphina yelled, throwing herself out of the stranger’s tight embrace. “THAT’S DISGUSTING.” She paused, before gathering all of her strength and slapping the stranger's cheek.

“OW!” he screamed. For some reason, the stranger’s scream was very high—even higher than Seraphina’s.

“What was that?” Juniper said, pausing in her inspection of a Rubik’s cube. She had just finished the cube, and moved the last layer back into place. “Was that Seraphina? But it’s too high and too loud to be her... I doubt she would scream loud enough to be heard across the entire mansion.”

Juniper headed through the hallways of the mansion, leaving the cube behind and travelling to what she hoped was the mansion’s front door. However, before she reached the entrance, she was distracted by the sound of loud thumps from a nearby room.

Juniper peered through the door of said room, before ducking to avoid a lamp which had probably flown off course.

“DAMMIT, YOU EVIL THING!” Amber yelled. She was hurling chairs, tables, lamps, and anything that she could reach in order to kill a mosquito which had landed on the wall.

“She is almost as destructive as Calypso...” Juniper muttered, shaking her head at the amount of destruction Amber had caused without even using magic. But as if her words had summoned it, there was a large crash in the neighbouring room. “Almost.”

Juniper stepped out of the destruction that a mosquito had caused, and peered into the room where she heard the large crash. “Calypso, what did you do this time?” 

“Nothing,” Calypso replied, stepping out of the room to meet Juniper. Calypso was covered with what looked like a bubbling green slime, and was wiping off her gaming laptop with a piece of cloth. “I only accidentally broke Amber’s lava lamp while trying to find a place to play _Osu!_. And anyways, it’s not as bad as what Amber’s doing to that room.” Calypso gestured to the room where Amber was still throwing stuff around.

“What is this?” Juniper asked, inspecting the slimy stuff that was all over Calypso. “Is this real lava?”

“It’s just wax or something,” Calypso said, shrugging. “It just looks like lava when you heat it or something like that.”

“Well, okay,” Juniper said, still kind of unsure of what Calypso had just said. “Let’s go to the front yard; I just heard someone scream there.”

Juniper began to head the front of the mansion. Calypso, deciding to just play _Osu!_ outside, just followed along, tracking wax across the floors of the hallways. As soon as they stepped outside, Juniper stopped, causing Calypso to almost walk into her.

“Wait, I need to check something,” Juniper said, dashing around a couple of hedges and disappearing from Calypso’s sight.

“She’s probably the most sketchy one of all here.” Calypso sighed. “She just pops in and out without really telling anyone what she’s doing...”

Calypso paused, looking for a bench where she could sit down and begin to play _Osu!_ . She soon saw one, as there were many benches along the pathways in the front yard, so she chose one and settled down, opening up her laptop and opening _Osu!_. However, before she could even begin playing, she was startled by a sudden, childish voice that rang out from behind her.

“You’re fat! I bet I can beat you at _Osu!_ ”

She whirled around to find a short boy grinning at her from the bush behind her. He had short black hair and an aura of mischief. 

“OH REALLY? I HAVE A PERFECT SCORE!” Calypso retorted, matching the short stranger with volume. “LET ME SHOW YOU.”

The boy was wearing a dark gray suit with various compartments and pockets, with light gray armour plating over his chest. He had a belt, equipped with what appeared to be a handgun and several bombs. Slung across his back was a sniper rifle, which seemed to be much too large for his size.

His outfit seemed _way_ too armed for some random short guy who apparently played Osu, making Calypso wonder if Amber’s world was inhabited by short boy soldiers or something. She was about to ask where he was from, but paused. Something about him was strangely familiar. She was almost certain that she’d seen his face somewhere before, even though that probably wasn’t likely.

“What’s wrong?” The stranger’s lively voice interrupted her. “Aren’t you going to play? Or did you realized that you’re going to LOSE because I’M BETTER THAN YOU!”

“Better than me my _butt,”_ Calypso scoffed, swinging open her laptop.

Calypso began to play _Osu!_ , ignoring the fact that her laptop’s volume was probably blasting across the entire yard. Amber probably couldn’t hear her anyways—the last time Calypso saw her, the sorceress had been hurling basically everything at a wall for some reason.

She was doing fairly well for a majority of the song, but she broke her combo at the last few beats. “Damn it!” 

The stranger snickered, giving her a smug look that made her want to punch him in the face.

“How about you try if you’re so good at it?” Calypso said, shoving her laptop over to the stranger. He smirked jauntily, grabbed it, and clicked “Play Again.”

As the last few notes of the song echoed in the air, Calypso yanked her laptop back, not hiding a bit of her pleasure. She had the higher score.

“Hacks! I call hacks!” the short guy cried.

“I won, fair and square,” Calypso smirked. “ _Shorty_.” She emphasized the last word as much as she could, pleased with the stranger’s reaction.

“WELL, SHUT UP BECAUSE YOU’RE FAT!”

Juniper weaved around a bunch of hedges and bushes which were in her way, heading towards a little fountain at the edge of the front yard.

“I still don't know why I'm sensing a demonic aura here,” Juniper muttered, glancing around. “I didn't think demons existed in Amber's world...”

She went around trampling most of the bushes, looking for whatever was emanating the demonic aura, but couldn't find anything.

“Maybe I was just imagining it...” she said, with a shrug. She was about to head back to meet Seraphina before she heard a rustle behind her.

She whipped around and drew her bow back halfway, her eyes scanning the wall of bushes and trees in front of her.

“Where are you?” Juniper demanded, waiting to fire her arrow at the next noise she heard. She didn’t need to, as suddenly, a boy with red eyes and silver hair which reached the back of his neck leapt out from behind the trees. Juniper paused, narrowing her eyes at the boy. 

“You’re a demon, aren’t you?” she asked.

“Of course I am,” the boy said. “Why else would you be in such awe right now? Demons are the best.” He smirked, showing his fang-like teeth, as Juniper glared at him. Then he yelped and leaped away as Juniper shot an arrow at the him.

“DEMON,” Juniper shouted. “What are you doing here? And why were you hiding? What are you up to?”

“It was fun to see your reaction, that's all,” he replied smugly. “And it’s not like you’re going to be able to hurt me with your pathetic arrows anyways. You humans aren’t capable of anything.” 

“FINALLY,” Amber muttered as she saw a small splash of blood spurt out from underneath the chair she slammed into the wall. With a flick of her wrist, she fixed all of the broken furniture, and the mess in the room was gone. 

“That’s much better. I don’t want to have another demon like that under my roof,” Amber said, pleased..

“DEMON,” came a distant shout. 

“Great,” Amber sighed. “I wonder what they are doing...” With that thought, Amber headed through the hallways, exiting through the front doors and glancing across her front yard. Unfortunately, there were many things that were wrong with the scene Amber saw. 

Seraphina was standing near the hedge maze, looking not just a bit disgusted as she watched a boy with a strange haircut rub his cheek.

“Why is there a sketchy crying guy in my mansion?!” Amber shouted, catching Seraphina’s attention. The strange boy continued to sob away, but before Amber could confront him, a yowl of triumph distracted her.

“Yessss! HA,” Calypso shouted. “I BEAT YOU, _SHORTY_ !” She had apparently won another round of _Osu!_... with yet another boy, who was strangely short.

“What is happening here,” Amber muttered. She then turned around and almost got shot by an arrow. “JUNIPER, WHAT—” She paused as she saw _another_ strange silver-haired boy leaping around in the garden, trampling all the plants.

“SERAPHINA, CALYPSO, and JUNIPER!” Amber hollered. Juniper and Calypso froze, turning to face Amber, while Seraphina was still trying to get the boy with the strange haircut to go away.

“WHAT is happening?” Amber shouted.

“Some midget picked a fight with me,” Calypso muttered.

“That’s because you’re FAT,” the random midget shouted.

“An unknown demon came and started being snobbish,” Juniper said.

“And a sketchy guy with a weird haircut broke my fall. And my eardrums,” Seraphina said, leaning away from the boy with the weird haircut.

“IT’S NOT MY FAULT YOU SLAPPED ME,” the sketchy guy cried.

“I’m not a midget!” the short boy protested at the same time.

“Excuse me, I was just telling the truth. Humans suck at everything,” the demon said, shrugging.

The voices of each person overlapped the other, leaving Amber with a mess of jumbled words. She sighed, and turned to the three boys.

“Who are you, and what are you doing at my mansion?” Amber asked. 

“I am Josten, the best at _Osu!_ ,” the short boy said.

“Not really, since I just beat you twice,” Calypso muttered. Amber cast her a glare, and Calypso went silent.

“I am BuBee,” the guy with the weird haircut said. “The best at the Rubik’s cube!”

“And Vaughan,” the silver-haired boy said. “The best dog demon ever.”

“Okay then, Josten, BuBee, and Vaughan,” Amber said. “What are you doing inside my mansion? And how did you break through my security? Have you guys, by any chance, seen a cat?”

All three of the boys shrugged and shook their head.

“YENA?” Amber shouted. After a few seconds, a light gray cat bounded towards Amber from the mansion doors.

“What are these people doing here?” Amber demanded the moment Yena stopped at her feet.

“What?” Yena asked, blinking at the three boys with her brown and blue eyes. “Who are those people?”

“That’s what I would like to know!” Amber said, throwing her hands in the air in exasperation.

“I don’t know,” Yena responded with an airy flick of her tail.

“So why are you guys here?” Juniper asked.

“I got lost,” Vaughan said. “I don’t know why those losers are here, too.”

“What about you two?” Amber asked, turning to Josten and BuBee.

“I was following my Shugo Chara,” BuBee said, pointing to a blank spot in the air. “He sensed another Shugo Chara.”

“I came here to challenge the fat person,” Josten said, ignoring BuBee and his invisible Shugo Chara. “I’m the best at GGO, but you somehow beat me at the last tournament! And you were super nooby too! HACKS.”

“Oh,” Calypso said. “ _That’s_ why you looked so familiar. You’re that midget that I beat in the last tournament!” She snorted. “That was like, half a year ago though. I wasn’t even trying; I just entered the tournament to see what it would be like. I don’t get how you lost to me either. Well, anyways, ALO is a lot better.”

“It’s suspicious that you all appeared at the same time,” Amber said, glaring at the three. “And what do you want?”

“I dunno, a place to stay?” Vaughan yawned. “It’s sort of cold and wet outside.”

“It’s not even wet outside; it hasn’t rained or anything,” Seraphina pointed out.

“What are you all, hobos?” Calypso said.

“Ahem?” Amber said with a pointed glare at Calypso.

“Um, I meant, do all you require a place to stay overnight?” Calypso stuttered.

“What? No, I don’t want to take them in!” Amber said. “Hobo just isn’t a word! Jeez, if you’re going to insult someone, at least use real words.”

“Oh, that makes more sense,” Juniper said, nodding. “I thought for a moment that Amber was being nice!”

“Homeless people...” Calypso grumbled.

“Can I pay you to let me stay? Just for a couple of days,” BuBee asked.

“No! I’d never let a bunch of dirty tramps take over my mansion,” Amber retorted. But then she paused, purposefully looking thoughtful. “But then again, Calypso does stay here.”

Calypso’s hand shot at her sword handle, but she obviously thought better than attacking Amber.

“We’re not dirty,” Vaughan protested.

“Says the dog,” Amber snapped. “Well, I’m not letting three suspicious strangers who randomly show up at my mansion stay.”

“I can teach you how to solve the Rubik’s cube?” BuBee suggested. “That could be counted as payment, right?”

“I already know how to,” Calypso said.

“What’s a Rubik’s cube?” Juniper asked.

“It’s those cubes with moving layers and stuff,” Seraphina said.

“Oh, that thing. I know how to solve that thing. It was quite easy, to be honest.”

“Hey! Then that means I can teach you!” BuBee said to Seraphina. 

“I'd rather die than learn anything from you.”

“I can show all of you how good at _Osu!_ I am!” Josten announced.

“Yeah right. I just beat you really badly,” Calypso scoffed.

“And I can show you how awesome demons are,” Vaughan said, narrowing his red eyes in a smirk.

“No!” Juniper cried. “You’re disgusting!”

“At least you didn’t fall on him,” Seraphina muttered.

“How did you even find this place?” Amber interrupted. She gestured to Seraphina, Calypso, and Juniper. “These girls all exist in different time periods and worlds, so normally they wouldn’t even be able to enter my world. You three are clearly from different universes as well. And on top of that, there’s my mansion’s security. So how are you three here?”

“I told you, I got lost.” Vaughan shrugged. “I don’t know how I ended up here. And your security sucks.” He raised an eyebrow at Yena.

“I followed my Shugo Chara,” BuBee said.

“And I’m here to challenge the fatty to prove my awesomeness!” Josten declared.

“Well, _Rubik’s Cube, Dog Boy, and Shorty,”_ declared Amber, “you need to leave. Your presence is not welcome here. Go now.” Amber looked each stranger up and down, before turning her head away sharply. “You disgust me.”

The three girls also smiled to themselves, probably happy that the boys were leaving. Amber snapped her fingers, and they were all teleported to the front of the mansion.

“Walk that way and don’t stop until my mansion’s out of sight,” Amber said sharply, pointing down the path that lead to the mansion gates. “I’m not leaving until I see with my own eyes that you’ve left.”

“Josten’s height will make him a bit hard to see though,” Calypso remarked.

“And Calypso’s so fat she’ll be the only thing you’ll see!” Josten shouted.

“You three, leave,” Amber interjected. “ _Now.”_

The three boy reluctantly began walking down the path, with Amber glaring at their backs. Vaughan and Josten had a hushed conversation with each other as they made their way to the mansion gates, with BuBee leading the three of them. 

Then, they were all halted by BuBee’s ear-shattering shriek as he crashed into something in the middle of the path and fell backwards. Amber winced as the high-pitched shriek echoed in the sky while Calypso, Juniper, and Seraphina covered their ears.

“I can’t get out!” he said, rubbing his backside.

“Don’t be stupid,” Amber said sharply, storming towards the three boys. “Leave!”

“Like I said, I can’t!”

Sighing with frustration, Amber followed BuBee’s steps and held her hand out, before it was stopped in the middle of the air.

“See, I told you!”

“What is this?” Amber muttered, knocking on the apparently invisible wall that stood before them. “YENA?!” she yelled.

“Oh, the barrier you mean,” Yena said, padding over to Amber from the mansion’s entrance.

“Oh, NOW my security works?” Amber hissed.

“Hey, I didn’t know these three would be coming. It’s not my fault these three managed to get on mansion grounds before I set it up,” Yena said, flicking her tail at Vaughan, Josten, and BuBee. “And besides, having an indestructible barrier around the mansion would be a lot safer, wouldn’t it?”

“Well yeah, but it’s REALLY LATE TO DO THAT NOW!” Amber yelled. “I need to kick these three tramps out of my mansion! Where did you find out how to create this stupid barrier anyways?”

“Magic,” Yena replied. Amber glared at her. “No, literally. I used some of the magic that the mage who was fused with me had.”

“Excuse me _what?”_ Calypso said.

“I _am_ the result of an experiment to test the limits of magic, after all,” Yena replied, matter-of-factly. “It’s not that surprising for them to have included a mage in their fusion experiment, although it _is_ a bit inhumane.”

“Wait wait wait,” Calypso said. “You’re the result of an _experiment?_!”

“How?” Juniper said.

“So you’re actually like a bunch of different creatures combined?” Seraphina said. “Shouldn’t that be illegal, even in your world?”

“It _is_ illegal,” Yena said. “That’s why three years ago, Amber’s parents were sent on a mission by the king to stop it.”

“Speaking of which, where _are_ your parents, Amber?” Calypso said. “Shouldn’t they be here in the mansion? Or are you just somehow super rich and bought this mansion by yourself?”

“That doesn’t matter,” Amber snapped. “What _matters_ is this stupid barrier.”

“Can't you just use your magic, Amber?” Seraphina asked.

“No,” Amber replied irritably. “Magic can only or alter, not erase or create. I can't really enchant this barrier to disappear from existence. If it was like that, then wars would never happen here, since mages could just enchant their enemies to die.”

“If magic can’t create, then how did Yena create this barrier in the first place?” Calypso said. “Are you sure she’s not hacking your magic system or something?”

“She solidified the air,” Amber said. “Although, she rarely uses magic, so I’m kind of surprised she managed to pull this off almost perfectly on her first try.”

“I’m surprised too.” Yena shrugged. “Maybe I’m just extremely talented at magic.”

“But _not_ at timing,” Amber retorted, glaring at the three boys. She huffed. “The only way the barrier will go away is from the caster dispelling it. Or until the magic used in it fades away, since things created by magic needs to constantly use up magic to continue existing.”

“Yena, hurry up and dispel the barrier then!” Calypso shouted.

“About that...” Yena said. “I don’t use magic that often, so it didn’t occur to me to allow it to be dispelled when I created it. So even I can't dispel it now.”

“Which means that no one can leave this place?” Juniper asked.

“Yep.”

Everyone was silent as they contemplated this fact.

“Well, guess I should go and clean up in the mansion,” Yena said, slinking away.

“YENA, YOU IDIOT!” Amber screamed.

“Let’s try breaking it down,” Calypso suggested, eagerly unsheathing her sword.

“It won’t work unless you have a sword made of the wood of the demon tree Yomeiju,” Juniper said. “Unfortunately, that tree got devoured by Naraku.”

“It probably wouldn’t work even if you _did_ have a sketchy sword from a tree or whatever,” Seraphina muttered.

“Whatever, let’s try!” Calypso leaped into the air and slashed at the barrier with her sword. Sparks flashed where the blade struck the barrier, but she didn’t break through. “Darn it...”

“Told you,” Juniper sighed. “That looked like it was bad for your sword.”

“I can try burning it down,” Seraphina suggested. “Karin?”

“ _I doubt that’s going to work..._ ” Karin said, unheard by everyone except for BuBee and Seraphina. “ _But it doesn’t hurt to try!_ ”

After she had summoned her Doodle Dragon, the red dragon nodded. It flew up to the barrier and hissed, before flames erupted from its mouth. The fire fanned across across the barrier, before harmlessly extinguishing.

“Noobs,” Juniper muttered, pronouncing the recently learned word with so much effort it sounded horribly off.

“Who’s the noob here?” Calypso snorted.

“You,” Juniper replied, clearly not grasping the concept of rhetorical questions. 

Seraphina stifled her laughter.

“Well, I guess it now looks like we have to stay here.” Vaughan smirked.

“Fat chance,” Amber snapped. 

“Well, that chance is probably higher than the chance of anyone breaking this barrier,” Josten chimed in with a grin.

“We’ll sort this out inside,” Amber hissed, turning to enter her mansion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Originally written:_** _August 2014._  
>  _Edited in 2016-2017._
> 
> There are like 10232 different things going on in this chapter that I think I need to explain LOL
> 
> So firstly, BuBee is a [thermos brand](https://www.amazon.ca/Bubee-K850B-Stainless-Vaccum-International/dp/B002B3TXAC). Why did we do this? I have no idea. I'm really sorry BuBee.
> 
> Secondly, the three guys that show up here, they're more or less inspired from real friends from middle school that my friends and I knew, because like, why not just spam our story with 10000 self-inserts? And so then, the whole "fatty" "shorty" thing that Calypso and Josten have going on, THAT'S LITERALLY WHAT THEY WOULD DO TO EACH OTHER IRL AS A JOKE this is legit one of the actual conversations I have a vivid memory of witnessing between Calypso and Josten's real-life counterparts back in the day:  
> 
> 
> Calypso: Hm, is it just me or did you get shorter?  
>  Josten: Or maybe it's because you got taller, AND FATTER.
> 
> aaaand I guess we took that and just decided to exaggerate it so yep skdjfjksd I apologize for Josten's behavior but also just obnoxiousness of everything in general LOL Don't we love middle school friendships
> 
> And finally, if you're somehow here and actually following this story (and to that, I'm sorry but thank you) you probably might've noticed how now there's a bunch of random information being brought up, like Amber's flashback, Amber's parents, Calypso beating Josten at a tournament, magic, etc.? Yeah, so like... after 2-3 years of writing this, we actually ended up coming up with... kind-of plot and character backstories, and I guess we tried to make things consistent by then inserting some extra information in the earlier chapters. And I couldn't find the unedited original version of the chapter, so I had to go with this. Don't worry about it though; these changes go all the way up to around chapter 10, but then after that we kinda just died on the edits, so at around chapter 10, everything reverts back to its original unedited shenanigans.


End file.
